Steve Jobs spoke at Stanford University in 2003, Barack Obama spoke at Howard University in 2016, and Nancy Pelosi at Notre Dame de Namur University earlier this year.
Is Lehigh University merely following the trend of paying fees to have high-profile guests for prestige and publicity? Is Compelling Perspectives for dialogue or a ploy of legitimacy to consolidate competitiveness and attract future applicants?
The Lehigh community is awaiting George W. Bush’s arrival in excitement, which can be seen through the venue change from Baker Hall to Stabler Arena, Lehigh’s largest venue.
I’m not questioning the importance of having high-profile speakers on campus, but how our Lehigh community — or just our society — is so quick to forget a record of atrocities a person has committed because of the name they hold.
I mean, it’s George W. Bush, right?
It makes logical sense to have a former president of the United States speak on the 2026–27 Compelling Perspective topic, “Bridging Divides: Democracy, Civic Service and Leadership for a Shared Future.” However, to what extent are those “divides” bridged and respectful discourse modeled with a restriction to media and a live Q&A?
Most, if not all, speakers Lehigh brings to campus will most likely not align with my political and moral views that I deem to be “compelling” or thought-provoking. But I’m not holding the university to that standard.
I’m interested in challenging the roles of academic institutions in facilitating conversations about democracy and the Middle East.
Education shouldn’t be biased, yet it is, stripping the humanity of the region. It’s inhumane how academics and the media portray the Middle East. It’s only portrayed as war torn, damaged, and having a homogenous identity, not by its rich cultures, diversity, and innovations.
Who’s next? Will U.S. President Donald Trump or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be the next Compelling Perspectives speakers? Will they speak on their role in fulfilling democracy and peace?
All perspectives can be worth sharing, but will we continue to be desensitized to the illusion of democracy, that has us one day in our millions taking to the streets to protest a war criminal to the next day inviting him to speak on a topic he didn’t fulfill?
I’m frustrated. I initially thought this frustration was targeted towards Bush or the Lehigh administration for choosing him as a speaker, but I’m more disappointed that I’m in the minority of those frustrated by his visit. I forget how easy it is to be in an echo chamber.
Last week in one of my political science classes, we were talking about Bush coming on campus and the conversation turned to students calling it a privilege to see him speak.
I walked out to cry in the bathroom. I couldn’t believe the person that overtly and systemically institutionalized Islamophobia is coming to campus and everyone seemed to support him.
I am a Muslim and Arab in America who has and will continue to live with the implications of his legacy.
Bush’s Global War on Terrorism fundamentally shattered the existing geopolitical order in the Middle East through a regional power shift to Iran, power vacuum in Iraq, the rise of the Islamic State group and long-term consequences of state instability and displacement.
He primed the public to view Muslim-majority countries through a lens of inherent hostility.
Domestically, his legacy also conflated anti-terrorism with Islamophobia through hyper-surveillance of Muslims with the Patriot Act, National Security Agency surveillance and profiling from the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System — a U.S. government tracking program created after the Sept. 11 attacks that increased screening for Muslim and Arab travelers.
His legacy also includes mass detentions and intense questioning of Muslims, Arabs and anyone perceived to be a part of those communities.
The systemic legal architecture of the War on Terror treated Muslims as a suspect class, normalizing Islamophobia in American public life. These consequences are still evident today.
Is this what Lehigh means when stating that Bush worked to “expand freedom, opportunity and security at home and abroad?” It’s enraging that the true legacy — the lives and stories that are made into numbers and casualties — are forgotten and distorted.
This goes beyond the claim of hearing from opposing views.
George W. Bush coming to campus is an injustice to education and democracy and Lehigh University failed to uphold its role as an academic institution.
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