--- title: Betsy DeVos Commencement: Bethune-Cookman Students Boo description: Students at Bethune-Cookman University booed and chanted during Betsy DeVos' commencement address on Wednesday, at times drowning her out canonical: https://time.com/4774450/betsy-devos-commencement-boo-bethune-cookman/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-10T18:40:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:51:16.598Z article:section: Politics og:title: Students Boo Betsy DeVos During Commencement at Historically Black University og:description: The university president intervened to warn students to stop og:url: https://time.com/4774450/betsy-devos-commencement-boo-bethune-cookman/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9963d62417cd92e1/6988ccc797cdff43806b0a3b/betsy-devos-commencement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Betsy DeVos Addresses Employees At Department Of Education og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Students Boo Betsy DeVos During Commencement at Historically Black University twitter:description: The university president intervened to warn students to stop twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9963d62417cd92e1/6988ccc797cdff43806b0a3b/betsy-devos-commencement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Students Boo, Turn Backs on Betsy DeVos During Commencement at Historically Black University > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly May 10, 2017 6:40 PM UTC  Betsy DeVos, U.S. secretary of education, speaks to employees on her first day at the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 8, 2017. Betsy DeVos, U.S. secretary of education, speaks to employees on her first day at the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 8, 2017.Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly May 10, 2017 6:40 PM UTC Students at the historically black [Bethune-Cookman University](http://www.cookman.edu/) booed and chanted during Betsy DeVos’ [commencement address](http://time.com/4773639/betsy-devos-bethune-cookman-university-commencement-hbcu-watch-online/) on Wednesday, at times drowning out the Education Secretary and forcing the university president to come to her defense. DeVos’ selection as commencement speaker [sparked backlash](http://time.com/4772907/betsy-devos-bethune-cookman-controversy/) last week, as Bethune-Cookman students and alumni criticized the way she and the Trump Administration have spoken about [historically black colleges and universities](http://time.com/4685456/betsy-devos-black-colleges-school-choice/) (HBCUs) since taking office. Bethune-Cookman President Edison Jackson, who refused demands to rescind his invitation to DeVos, interrupted her address at one point to reprimand students. “If this behavior continues, your degrees will be mailed to you,” he said. “Choose which way you want to go.” DeVos began her speech with a call to disagree with one another respectfully. “We can focus on differences that might divide us or we can choose to listen, be receptive and learn from other experiences and perspectives,” DeVos said. “In my life, I have endeavored to do the latter.” Students booed and chanted throughout her speech, and some turned their backs, prompting many of the university leaders on stage to stand up behind DeVos in an apparent display of solidarity. Boos grew particularly loud at mentions of President Donald Trump and at DeVos’ remark that she would visit the gravesite of the university’s founder, Mary McLeod Bethune. DeVos condemned the “startling polarization across the United States” and issued a challenge to students to approach others with grace. “We will not solve the significant and real problems our country faces if we cannot brings ourselves to embrace a mindset of grace,” she said. “We must first listen, then speak, with humility, to genuinely hear the perspectives of those with whom we don’t immediately or instinctively agree.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4774450/betsy-devos-commencement-boo-bethune-cookman/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4774450/betsy-devos-commencement-boo-bethune-cookman/"},"headline":"Students Boo, Turn Backs on Betsy DeVos During Commencement at Historically Black University","datePublished":"2017-05-10T18:40:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:51:16.598Z","description":"The university president intervened to warn students to stop","url":"https://time.com/4774450/betsy-devos-commencement-boo-bethune-cookman/","keywords":["Education","College","Commencement","onetime","Betsy DeVos"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9963d62417cd92e1/6988ccc797cdff43806b0a3b/betsy-devos-commencement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9963d62417cd92e1/6988ccc797cdff43806b0a3b/betsy-devos-commencement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Betsy DeVos Addresses Employees At Department Of Education","caption":"Betsy DeVos Addresses Employees At Department Of Education","creditText":"Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images","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":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/education/","name":"Education"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4774450/betsy-devos-commencement-boo-bethune-cookman/","name":"Students Boo, Turn Backs on Betsy DeVos During Commencement at Historically Black University"}}]}] ```