Christine Lagarde IMF

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine LaGarde makes a statement about sanctions leveled against Russia, during a news conference following an IMF Executive Board meeting at IMF Headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 30, 2014.

(AP photo / Cliff Owen)

Update, 11:02 a.m. Tuesday: Smith College economics professors decry Christine Lagarde's withdrawal as commencement speaker; say they wanted to hear the IMF managing director speak

NORTHAMPTON — International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde has withdrawn as Smith College's 2014 commencement speaker following protests from faculty and students, college officials announced Monday.

Former Smith College president Ruth J. Simmons will take her place.

In an announcement issued Monday, college president Kathleen McCartney wrote that Lagarde contacted her over the weekend to say she did not want the controversy surrounding her role as commencement speaker to detract from the event.

“In the last few days,” Lagarde wrote to McCartney, “it has become evident that a number of students and faculty members would not welcome me as a commencement speaker. I respect their views, and I understand the vital importance of academic freedom. However, to preserve the celebratory spirit of commencement day, I believe it is best to withdraw my participation.”

An online petition calling for school officials to "reconsider" the choice of Lagarde as commencement speaker has drawn 477 signatures. The petition reads, in part:

"Utterly disgusted that Smith has chosen to host someone from the IMF, an organization that has proven itself to be nothing but imperialistic, ineffective, and oppressive," wrote one woman who signed the online petition.

Another woman who identified herself as a graduating senior wrote: "It was in a Smith classroom that I first learned about the problems that the IMF has wrought on the Global South, and how those problems have affected women's lives for the worse."

Lagarde has served as managing director at the International Monetary Fund since July 2011, when she became the first woman to hold the position.

In announcing Lagarde's withdrawal, McCartney wrote that students and faculty who objected "[...] will be satisfied that their activism has had a desired effect." But, McCartney asked the college community to consider what cost the protest carried, adding: "This is a question I hope we will ponder as a community in the months ahead."

McCartney said she stands behind the decision of the Smith Board of Trustees to invite Lagarde as a speaker.

"I want to underscore this fact," McCartney wrote. "An invitation to speak at a commencement is not an endorsement of all views or policies of an individual or the institution she or he leads. Such a test would preclude virtually anyone in public office or position of influence. Moreover, such a test would seem anathema to our core values of free thought and diversity of opinion."

Simmons became Smith's ninth president in 1995. When she the became Brown University's 18th president in 2001 she earned the distinction of being the first African-American woman to lead an Ivy League school.

The commencement is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 18 at the campus Quadrangle.