Guilford alumnus and U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, R-Greensboro, whose comments about Japanese American internment in World War II have sparked criticism nationally and from Guilford students, told The Guilfordian Wednesday that “if there’s one senior who does not want me to give the graduation speech, I would happily withdraw.”
Coble, scheduled to speak at commencement in May, said no Guilford administrator has contacted him yet about dropping or keeping him as a speaker.
“I think that would be up to the college,” Coble said. “But graduation belongs to the seniors, and if they’re not happy with the speaker giving them the address, that would mar the day.
“So if one senior suggests that I should not be on the podium, I will not be on the podium, with no hard feelings.”
President Kent Chabotar said he had been waiting for a more pronounced student reaction before he told Coble about any protest on campus, and said that he has so far received only three comments from students – two of them seniors – requesting that the college revoke its invitation to Coble to deliver a commencement address.
“I’d be disappointed if he withdrew at the objection of one senior, and so would the senior class,” Chabotar said.
It appears, however, that many students, including a number of seniors, believe Coble should step down after saying on a radio show last week it had been appropriate to intern Japanese Americans during WWII, which he said had been done to protect them from an unfriendly public.
Coble made the comments in response to a caller who suggested the internment of Arab Americans, an idea Coble rejected.
Senior Josh Neas was among the first students to protest the internment comments, starting a petition declaring that Coble’s comments “are not in line with the teachings and values of Guilford College, and as such we feel he does not represent the graduating class, or the college, in a fit manner.”
According to Neas, 250 people, including undergraduates, seniors, and a few faculty and alumni, have signed. Neas said he planned to present the petition by the coming Wednesday to Chabotar and Dean of Campus Life Anne Lundquist.
He estimates that between 40 and 50 seniors have signed.
Some seniors, like CCE senior Scott Smith, support keeping Coble on. “Although I’m not a Republican, I did vote for Howard Coble last year,” Smith said. “I think it’s unfair to rescind his invitation based on comments he made on a crisis that happened over 50 years ago.” [Smith is Business Manager for The Guilfordian.]
Senior and Community Senate President Naz Urooj does want Coble removed. “I am really offended by his comments and am rather ashamed to know that he is a Guilford grad,” Urooj said.
Coble stated that Roosevelt, who ordered the internment, was right at the time. “We were at war. They (Japanese Americans) were an endangered species.
“For many of these Japanese Americans, it wasn’t safe for them to be on the street.
“Some probably were intent on doing harm to us,” Coble said, “just as some of these Arab Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us.”
“Common sense says not to put a kind of human being down like that, and I’d be personally offended if he were my graduation speaker,” said Urooj, who is Arabic.
“It’s Kent’s [Chabotar’s] responsibility to see what students want, and replace him,” Urooj said.
Coble has since released a press statement regretting that “many Japanese and Arab Americans found my choice of words offensive, because that was certainly not my intent.
“We all now know that this was in fact the wrong decision and an action that should never be repeated,” Coble said in the statement, released last Monday.
President Chabotar chose Coble as a commencement speaker upon the Convocation and Celebrations Committee’s recommendation, chaired by Anne Lundquist. Chabotar had submitted the names of four candidates from which the committee was to choose, according to Urooj, who serves on that committee as a student representative, and who approved the choice of Coble in December.
“I think that the senior class should be more way more involved in the process of planning commencement,” said senior Naman Hampton, also opposed to having Coble as his graduation speaker.
Chabotar defended student involvement, saying that “when you set up a representative committee, you ask them to make recommendations or decisions on behalf of the constituencies they represent.”
“Naz [Urooj] enthusiastically endorsed the addition of Coble to Chabotar and the two students,” Chabotar said, referring to himself as another scheduled graduation speaker. The senior class nominates and votes on the two student speakers.
The Neas petition requests that “the nomination of a new speaker be opened to the graduating student body and selected on the basis of their input.”