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Editor’s Note: This Letter to the Editor was published on April 14, before news of Kent Syverud’s brain cancer diagnosis was announced.

It feels boring and antiquated that, in 2026, I’m explaining why our commencement speaker shouldn’t be someone with a history of alleged sexual harassment. Frankly, I’d expect us all to know and do better by now.

I don’t care that it happened in the 1990s, and I certainly don’t care that he faced “consequences” after.

Honoring Mike Tirico as the 2026 commencement speaker is a slap in the face to every woman graduating this year. It sends a painfully apathetic message to every woman in the JMA Wireless Dome: We don’t care about men stalking, groping or harassing you. Our priority is not your comfort, but the PR we’ll get from our famous alumni.

For those unfamiliar, Tirico is a famous NBC sportscaster. Many recognize him from hosting Sunday Night Football or the Olympics. He graduated from Syracuse University in 1988 and has been a major benefactor, offering funding such as the Mike Tirico Scholarship Endowment. He’s also a member of the Syracuse University Board of Trustees.

Unfortunately, he also made headlines in 2017, when reports surfaced of his alleged inappropriate behavior toward female colleagues. Tirico was accused of sexual harassment by half a dozen women during his time at ESPN. Allegations include stalking a female subordinate and sending inappropriate emails to a female producer, while he was married.

Despite some public outrage during the #MeToo movement, NBC stuck with Tirico on the grounds that he apologized and faced consequences.

To some, this criticism may seem excessive. A little impropriety in the ‘90s seems trivial compared to the sexual misconduct stories currently flooding our news feeds.

But there’s an insidious complicity in SU’s higher ups choosing Tirico as our commencement speaker. They’re not only putting a stamp of approval on his actions, but marketing him as a role model and someone to take advice from.

In a world already tainted by incel culture that seeks to isolate men and women, this shouldn’t be the kind of narrative we push on impressionable young adults about to enter the workforce.

On one of the most important days of their lives, female graduates shouldn’t have to sit and listen to a man speak about his accomplishments and life advice knowing he’s just like other men who don’t respect our autonomy and boundaries. We talk so much about “cancel culture,” but it seems that men are rarely actually held accountable for their actions. Clearly not by SU.

I’d like to say I expected better from SU, but this behavior is consistent with a pattern of questionable leadership from the ever-uninvolved Chancellor Kent Syverud. It feels lazy and disappointing that out of the over 240,000 living alumni, SU chose one with a seemingly predatory history.

It’s a shame that on such a momentous and joyful day, there’ll be a cloudy overcast of male untouchability and the discomfort of all the women that have ever had a man make them feel unsafe in a professional or academic space.

Greta Kirby is a senior majoring in political science and political philosophy. She can be reached at mmkirby@syr.edu.

Published on April 14, 2026 at 8:55 pm