--- title: Speaker: Students 'Immature' for Protesting Commencement Choice description: Former Princeton president William Bowen criticized how Haverford students campaigned against former UC Berkeley chancellor Robert Birgeneau canonical: https://time.com/104142/haverford-commencement-speaker/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-18T21:00:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:18.930Z og:title: Speaker: Students 'Immature' for Protesting Commencement Choice og:description: Former Princeton president William Bowen criticized how Haverford students campaigned against former UC Berkeley chancellor Robert Birgeneau og:url: https://time.com/104142/haverford-commencement-speaker/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb62faf7b75394176/6986900be53aba9e9c4d2a2c/william-bowen-commencement-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1786 og:image:height: 1005 og:image:alt: William Bowen, former president of Princeton University, delivers his second commencement speech to the 2014 graduates of Haverford College, on May 18, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Speaker: Students 'Immature' for Protesting Commencement Choice twitter:description: Former Princeton president William Bowen criticized how Haverford students campaigned against former UC Berkeley chancellor Robert Birgeneau twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb62faf7b75394176/6986900be53aba9e9c4d2a2c/william-bowen-commencement-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Commencement Speaker: Students 'Immature' for Protesting Another Speaker > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney May 18, 2014 9:00 PM UTC  William Bowen, former president of Princeton University, delivers his second commencement speech to the 2014 graduates of Haverford College, on May 18, 2014. William Bowen, former president of Princeton University, delivers his second commencement speech to the 2014 graduates of Haverford College, on May 18, 2014. Clem Murray—The Philadelphia Inquirer/AP  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney May 18, 2014 9:00 PM UTC A commencement speaker at Pennsylvania’s Haverford College called college students “immature” and “arrogant” Sunday for protesting a different speaker who ultimately withdrew. Former Princeton University President William Bowen criticized those who protested Robert Birgeneau, former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, the Associated Press reports. Three professors and 40 students had campaigned against Birgeneau’s invitation to speak, citing his management of a 2011 campus clash between police and Occupy movement protestors that resulted in police using force against the demonstrators. The Haverford students and professors wanted Birgeneau to apologize, support victim payments and explain what he learned about the events in a letter to the student body. Birgeneau refused to do so and canceled his Haverford visit, joining a group of [college commencement speakers](http://time.com/98367/caving-on-commencement-speakers-is-censorship-not-scholarship/) who backed out of speaking engagements this spring following protests from students. “I am disappointed that those who wanted to criticize Birgeneau’s handling of events at Berkeley chose to send him such an intemperate list of ‘demands,'” Bowen said, [the Philadelphia _Inquirer_ reports](http://articles.philly.com/2014-05-18/news/49928236%5F1%5Fbirgeneau-haverford-students-haverford-college). “In my view, they should have encouraged him to come and engage in a genuine discussion, not to come, tail between his legs, to respond to an indictment that a self-chosen jury had reached without hearing counterarguments.” Bowen’s speech was met with a standing ovation. \[[_AP_](http://news.yahoo.com/college-speaker-calls-students-immature-arrogant-190441211.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/104142/haverford-commencement-speaker/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/104142/haverford-commencement-speaker/"},"headline":"Commencement Speaker: Students 'Immature' for Protesting Another Speaker","datePublished":"2014-05-18T21:00:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:18.930Z","description":"William Bowen, a former Princeton University president, criticized Haverford College students who rallied against a former University of California, Berkeley chancellor as their speaker because of his management of a 2011 protest that led to police force","url":"https://time.com/104142/haverford-commencement-speaker/","keywords":["Living","Education","College","Family","Commencement","universities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb62faf7b75394176/6986900be53aba9e9c4d2a2c/william-bowen-commencement-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb62faf7b75394176/6986900be53aba9e9c4d2a2c/william-bowen-commencement-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"William Bowen, former president of Princeton University, delivers his second commencement speech to the 2014 graduates of Haverford College, on May 18, 2014.","caption":"William Bowen, former president of Princeton University, delivers his second commencement speech to the 2014 graduates of Haverford College, on May 18, 2014.","creditText":"Clem Murray—The Philadelphia Inquirer/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/104142/haverford-commencement-speaker/","name":"Commencement Speaker: Students 'Immature' for Protesting Another Speaker"}}]}] ```