The cloud hovering over former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton has cast a shadow on this Spring’s graduation ceremony, as some Metro professors oppose her as the commencement speaker.

     Three Metro professors have publicly expressed indignation that the speaker is a high-profile politician, whose time as secretary
was tarnished by criticism and scandal.

     “The fact of the matter is that Gale Norton is under a cloud of legal suspicion,” said Metro history professor Tom Altherr. “She is not a neutral person.”
Norton, the first woman to serve as secretary of the interior, resigned in March amid a lawsuit over the department’s alleged mismanagement
of Indian Trust Funds, which compensate individual American Indians for use of their land. The lawsuit seeks billions of dollars in compensation over missing records
and failed record keeping.

     Native Americans and environmentalists alike have publicly criticized Norton regarding her handling of environmental issues and her dealings with the Bureau of Indian Affairs as secretary of the interior.

     Sarah EchoHawk Vermillion, an adjunct professor of Native American Studies at Metro and a member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, is opposed to Norton speaking at the graduation because of the way she and the department has handled themselves in the Indian Trust case. Norton was held in contempt after she failed to comply with federal orders to fix oversight problems with a trust handling of royalties from Indian land.

     “The Department of the Interior did a lousy job of dealing with Indian Affairs,” Vermillion said.

     According to the Department of the Interior Website, Norton took steps to improve the Indian trust program. She proposed a plan to improve and reform the program, which would form a departmental organization to exclusively oversee trust management.
     The Bureau of Indian Affairs, under the proposed plan, could intensify its commitment to improve economic development, law enforcement, education and transportation in Indian country.
     Environmentalists have criticized her failure to reduce a National Park Service maintenance backlog that could total $9.7 billion. Norton has also been accused, by environmentalists, of weakening enforcement of the Endangered Species Act, according to The Washington Post.
     “This is not the person we want addressing our graduates,” Altherr said.

     A self-proclaimed Democrat, Altherr stated that his opposition to Norton was not due to her political affiliation with the Republicanparty. He said he would not want a major Democrat such as Ted Kennedy to speak at a commencement, either.

      “I would oppose, equally vigorously, any significantly politically identified person as graduation speaker,” he said. “Indeed, I would not want to see some heavily-identified Democrat from lower echelons, especially one with a moral cloud over his or her head.”

     Metro owes their graduates someone who is not under any suspicion and should give them a moving, politic-free graduation, he said. Students should be honored for their hard work and sacrifices with a truly inspiring speaker, who is not politically identified.

     “I think the people we should select are public servants that don’t have high salaries,” said Zia Meranto, director of Metro’s Native American Studies program.
vMeranto said a graduation ceremony is a time of celebration and should not create an environment of hostility, one where some students are likely to protest the speaker.

     I have no problem having Gale Norton invited on to this campus as a regular speaker … I would even welcome her to come talk to my American Environmental History class,” Altherr said. “The main issue is choosing her as a commencement speaker.”

     Meranto said she thinks graduating students should decide on whom they want to speak at their graduation, or should at least be involved in the decision-making process.
     Metro does not have any funding, nor does it have an allocated budget for getting commencement speakers, said Metro spokesperson Cathy Lucas. Because of this, Lucas said, commencement speakers are usually found through connections to members of the Board of Trustees.

     Norton’s husband, John Hughes, is a Metro alum. Lucas added that the selection of speakers is in no way politically charged and that Metro tries to remain fair and balanced when selecting speakers. The college’s main goal is to find a prominent name that will address the graduating class, and have something valuable to share, she said.

      Past speakers include Mayor John Hickenlooper, Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., state Rep. Lola Spradley, R-Colo., and Gov. Bill Owens. Norton was sworn in as the 48th secretary of the interior in January 2001 and served in that position longer than all but six of her predecessors. She served as Attorney General for Colorado from 1991 to 1999, and, in that capacity, argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and testifi ed numerous times before congressional committees.

     Norton was a negotiator in the $206 billion national tobacco settlement, in which she represented Colorado and 45 other states as part of the largest lawsuit in settlement
history.
     She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Denver in 1975. She also earned her law degree with honors from DU in 1978. Norton is scheduled to address Metro’s Spring 2006 graduating class at 2 p.m. May 14 in the Colorado Convention Center. According to Lucas, Norton will speak about environmental issues, especially in urban societies, and how they affect people’s everyday life.