Lemony Snicket Replaced By Anita Hill As Wesleyan Commencement Speaker
Lemony Snicket/Daniel Handler Image by Getty Images
Children’s book author Daniel Handler, better known as Lemony Snicket, will no longer be giving the commencement speech at Wesleyan College this may. Snicket resigned after finding himself the target of student protests amid allegations that he had a penchant for making inappropriate sexual remarks to female authors.
Wesleyan’s president, Michael Roth, sent an email to the student body on Thursday with the news.
“We’ve agreed that the focus of the event should be on the class of 2018, their families and the celebration of graduation.”
Snicket will be replaced with Anita Hill, a professor at Brandeis University best known for accusing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual misconduct in 1991. Hill was already slated to receive an honorary degree alongside Handler at the ceremony.
In an interview with the StarTribune, Wesleyan senior Sarah Small said, “We feel there is no place for him on that stage. He has demonstrated he really does not have a sense of what is appropriate to say.”
Small is one of several students who protested Handler’s speech after several female authors accused him in a blog post of making inappropriate sexual remarks around them. Handler has not been accused of any crimes.
Becky Scott is the editor of The Schmooze. Follow her on Twitter, @arr_scott
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
