"...the Board of Trustees wrote down in their set of criteria to give someone an honorary degree from our University on September 30th of 2002 that the person must be of high academic and personal integrity who has contributed positively to the community, someone who can be a role model for graduating students from USC to emulate. George W. Bush has violated each of the six tenets of the Carolina creed. He was denied entrance to every law school he ever applied to. We will be awarding him an honorary degree of doctor of laws on Friday at 3 p.m. I find that ironic and offensive.
"I want someone who has contributed positively to the community, who can be an academic and personal role model for me. Speaking to me at graduation should kind of send me off into this new transition, new part of my life. I don't want someone who has violated international peace treaties, somebody who has dropped cluster bombs on Iraq, somebody who has failed to provide a penny of funding for the largest unfunded federal mandate in the history of America, the Every Child Left Behind Act.
"We have beefed up the military and slashed the education budget; we're increasing tuition at universities, which is going to increase the educational divide between the kids who are poor and can't afford to go to school and the kids who are rich who can afford to go to school. Do we really want that to happen in the United States?
"This man should not be speaking at my graduation; he shouldn't be making a political stump speech one week after the Democratic primary debate. That's what it's all about.
"The University has a standing invitation for him to come to speak at our University. Fine. Come on June 15th. Come on July 10th. Don't come to my graduation."