The senate at the University of Maryland recommended last week that a short prayer be eliminated from the school’s graduation ceremony, but Maryland’s president rejected the suggestion.
The senate, which includes faculty, students and staff, voted 42 to 14 to remove the invocation from the program. Senate chairman Kenneth Holum said the group’s decision was a response to people feeling “excluded or marginalized” by the inclusion of a prayer at a public school commencement ceremony, according to The Washington Post.
Maryland President C.D. Mote Jr. decided to leave the invocation in place, however, calling it “an important part of our commencement tradition” on the Chronicle of Higher Education Web site.
Ohio University does not include an invocation at its commencement ceremony and hasn’t in recent years, according to the president’s office. The university did include them into the 1970s, rotating the honor among local religious leaders, but then-President Charles Ping eliminated the prayer after several student groups protested it. The “A.D.” was also removed from the years on diplomas during Ping’s tenure.
-Emily Grannis
