Michael Smerconish, political commentator and radio host, has been removed as the Commencement speaker for the Class of 2024, according to a statement from the President’s Office.

In his statement, President John E. Jones III ’77 said Smerconish “faced overwhelming opposition from our faculty and students, particularly after recent comments he made. As a result, with the support of our Board of Trustees, I have decided to rescind the honorary degree and invitation to speak at Commencement.”

The announcement comes following a May 1 livestream of “Headlines from the Smerconish.com Newsletter,” where Smerconish commented on an opinion piece published in The Dickinsonian. The piece claimed the Class of 2024 deserves better than him due to previous statements about Arab Americans and Muslims in his 2004 book “Flying Blind” and in years after that.

On the livestream, Smerconish said that he needs to reread “Flying Blind,” but said, “Chances are, that given the acquired wisdom of the last 20 years and all the knowledge that I have gleaned … my hunch is I will probably stand behind every single word in the book.”

Community demands for Smerconish to be removed as speaker began before this livestream. His removal was a key demand of the Dickinson College Coalition for Mutual Liberation, a group that held a week-long encampment on Britton Plaza in solidarity with other colleges that have encampments to show support for Palestine in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. A Google Forms petition to remove Smerconish, which was distributed by the Coalition, received 828 signatures from students, faculty, staff, alums and parents.

This story is developing. Follow this article for more updates.