BOSTON (WHDH) - Pomp and circumstance will meet picket signs and strike chants next weekend at Boston University’s graduation ceremony. The Writers Guild of America announced Thursday that its members will be protesting this year’s commencement speaker David Zaslav.
Its members will be outside BU’s Nickerson Field to be seen and heard by the Warner Brothers Discovery CEO Zaslav who’s recently came under fire for his $250 million pay package while more than 11,000 writers have been on strike for more than a week, whose main issue is payment for shows on streaming services.
In the heart of BU, student reactions were mixed.
“It’s really hard to get one commencement speaker that’s just a clean slate,” Ariel Shao, a junior said, “Like you’re all good. There’s no controversial thing about you, and I think it’s really about the people surviving the 4 years of college and making it out into the world.”
Some graduating students are thinking twice about attending next weekend.
“I definitely thought about it,” graduating student Sara Rogers said. “I’m a performance major here so as an artist I definitely stand with the people in the writers’ strike right now and it’s not a great look that BU is bringing someone like that here right now.”
Sophie England, an undergraduate graduate, said she might go before or after the commencement speaker.
“Being in the College of Communication, it affects so many of us so so deeply, so many writers,” graduating student Clara Sudol said. “So something that I just feel is the University, I want them to hear us and I want them to acknowledge us.”
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