S.C. State Cancels Lt. Gov.’s Grad Speech; She Campaigns On It

South Carolina State University, a historically Black university, has canceled a graduation speech by the state’s lieutenant governor, a vocal Trump supporter who has been using the controversy to campaign for governor.

S.C. State students protested their university’s selection of Pamela Evette for the May 8 commencement, taking issue with—among other things—her opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion programs and her fervent support for the president. Student body president Zaria C. Tucker also noted that Evette backs redistricting to eliminate the current congressional district held by Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, an S.C. State alumnus.

Evette, a Republican, responded to the protesters by publicly calling them “woke mobs” in a video she posted Tuesday.

“I must be doing something right because woke mobs are coming after me for being a champion of eliminating radical DEI scams on college campuses,” Evette said. “So bring it on.”

On Wednesday, she doubled down, posting a campaign video on X featuring dramatic music and clips of Black protesters marching at night. “What we saw, with hundreds of people coming together, yelling and chanting, is a mob,” she says.

The ad ends with the words “See you at commencement”—with “Paid for by Evette for Governor” at the bottom.

“I’ve never seen a commencement speaker coming to fight the honorees,” wrote Walter Kimbrough, the United Negro College Fund’s executive vice president of research and member engagement. “What are we doing here? She has even created an ad to incite the controversy.”

The same day Evette posted that ad, university president Alexander Conyers said in a statement that students would not be seeing her at commencement.

“Out of an abundance of caution for safety and with careful consideration, the university has decided to move in a different direction,” Conyers said. The university didn’t answer Inside Higher Ed’s requests for more information, such as whether there was a specific safety threat and from whom.

Conyers said the choice to invite Evette “was rooted in her record as a business leader and entrepreneur. As the founder and former CEO of a company that grew from a start-up into a billion-dollar enterprise, she represents the kind of innovation, resilience and real-world achievement that aligns with the aspirations of our graduates.” He thanked her “for her willingness to engage with our students.”

He added, “Our students have exercised their rights in a manner that reflects the importance of civic engagement and respectful discourse within a university community … The voices and perspectives of our students are an important part of the academic experience and contribute to the ongoing dialogue that strengthens our university community.”

Evette then tripled down after the cancellation and blamed faculty in a post on X.

She wrote the cancellation is “exactly why we cannot give up the fight to end indoctrination and DEI on campuses once and for all. The root problem is professors who gin up feigned outrage at the detriment of their students, who [sic] they should be teaching to think critically. End tenure now!”