Betsy DeVos gets standing ovation from Ave Maria University grads after speech

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos delivered the commencement address to a welcoming crowd Saturday at Ave Maria University.

In her roughly 20-minute speech, DeVos focused on the teachings of religious figures, including Jesus Christ, former Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa, and emphasized the importance of service to God, country and neighbor.

The speech earned DeVos a standing ovation from the roughly 230 undergraduate students and their relatives and friends.

About a dozen graduate and doctoral students also received their degrees at the ceremony, which took place inside the Tom Golisano Field House.

The warm welcome was in stark contrast to the disapproving crowds DeVos encountered last year while speaking at the commencement ceremonies of Daytona Beach's Bethune-Cookman University, where she was booed, and the University of Baltimore, where students turned their backs. 

Quoting Pope Benedict XVI, DeVos urged the room of graduates to harness their faith and push past life's roadblocks. 

“The world promises you comfort,” she said. “But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.”

While speaking about service, DeVos affirmed her “moral obligation to expand educational opportunities for each and every child.”

Service, she said, “is ultimately about humbly choosing to see the face of Christ in your neighbor and recognizing and addressing their needs."

The Michigan billionaire also invoked religious teachings to illustrate a lesson in governance. She reminded the audience of the Gospel story of when Jesus urged his unwilling disciples to feed the hungry.

“Ever-growing government has inserted itself into relationships, making folks less connected and more insulated from the needs of others,” she said. “Jesus didn’t instruct the disciples to lobby the Roman Empire for more food assistance. He said, ‘You do it.’”

Many graduates said they enjoyed DeVos’ speech and knew of only a minority of students who objected to their university’s invitation.

“I thought it was honestly beautifully done,” said theology major Patricia Nichols. “It was tasteful.”

Andre Antoine, a business administration major, described DeVos’ words as “empowering” and “motivational.”

“I feel like I was brought to enlightenment,” he said.

But Noell McMahon, a literature major, said she was disappointed by the speech, which she felt focused too heavily on the importance of service – a value that has already been deeply ingrained into each Ave Maria student, she said.

“I expected more inspirational advice,” she said.

Nichols, Antoine, McMahon and other students interviewed by the Daily News said they were not familiar with DeVos’ policies.

Though Saturday’s crowd was a welcoming one, not everyone in the Ave Maria community approved of the controversial commencement speaker.

A group of 36 Ave Maria graduates penned an open letter last month expressing their disapproval of their alma mater’s decision to host the education secretary, whose policies they argued are “callous and unjust towards marginalized persons.”

Related:Ave Maria alumni oppose Betsy DeVos as 2018 commencement speaker

More:Ave Maria alumni respond to letter denouncing Betsy DeVos as speaker

Under DeVos’ leadership, the Education Department has scaled back funding for the Office for Civil Rights and has rescinded 72 guidance documents that outlined the rights of students with disabilities.

The university’s “endorsement” of DeVos is at odds with the university’s Catholic and liberal arts values and “casts the University in a pointedly partisan light,” the alumni wrote.

A group of more than 100 graduates issued a rebuttal letter this week in defense of DeVos and Ave Maria’s administration, which said their former classmates’ arguments were “unfounded and nothing short of mere conjecture.”

Ave Maria’s decision to host a policymaker on campus creates an opportunity for an open exchange of ideas, which is fundamental to the ideals of a liberal arts institution, they wrote.

“Additionally, having someone of Mrs. DeVos’ stature on campus is an opportunity for the school to advance its unique Catholic mission and extend its positive influence into the political community, including the current administration,” the letter reads.

While speaking to the crowd at Saturday’s ceremony, Ave Maria president Jim Towey applauded DeVos’ policies, including her reversal of Obama-era directives, which he referred to as “overreach in higher education policy.”

“You’ve accepted as a fact of life that your policy proposals make you controversial and maybe sometimes even unwelcome in some circles,” he said. “But Madame Secretary, you don’t strike me as someone who needs a safe space.”

In an April interview with the Naples Daily News, Towey pointed to President Barack Obama’s guidance on Title IX, which offered protections for transgender students and lowered the burden of proof required to adjudicate cases of campus sexual assault, as examples of overreach that DeVos has rightly altered or rescinded.

“It was a long overdue correction that’s helped us maintain our faith-based identity,” Towey said. “What DeVos has done has been laudable.”

In addition to inviting DeVos to speak at commencement, Towey had planned to confer to DeVos an honorary doctorate. Because she leads the agency that oversees programs in which the university participates, including financial aid, both Towey and the Department of Education agreed the doctorate could present a conflict of interest and decided to forgo the honor.

Past Ave Maria commencement speakers have included Gov. Rick Scott and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

The event marked DeVos’ third official visit to Collier County. DeVos read to kindergartners at Lake Park Elementary in November after visiting Florida Southwestern Collegiate High School, a charter school in Fort Myers. In October she toured Everglades City School and Pinecrest Elementary in Immokalee to survey damage from Hurricane Irma.

In January 2018:U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to speak at Ave Maria University graduatio