Protests to greet Condoleezza Rice at Boston school
Thu May 18, 2006 04:07 PM ET
By Monica M. Clark

BOSTON (Reuters) - Plans by a prominent Boston Jesuit school to award U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice an honorary degree are stirring protests by some students and faculty who say her support for the Iraq war contradicts Catholic teaching.

Boston College theology professor David Hollenbach and Kenneth Himes, the department's chair, issued a petition to the school's president objecting to a planned commencement address by Rice on Monday when she will receive the honorary degree -- a custom for commencement speakers.

One faculty member, Steven Almond, resigned in protest.

"We'll be turning our backs during the honorary degree ceremony," said Sasha Westerman, a graduating student at the college who plans to distribute 1,000 protest armbands along with placards reading: "not in our name."

"No one asked me if I wanted (Rice) to speak and no one asked me if I wanted (the country) to go to Iraq," she said.