Prior to her speech, DeVos received a much warmer welcome from Bethune-Cookman’s student leaders. The university’s former student-body president, Jacari Harris, described the education secretary as “very transparent,” telling the Post that DeVos “has a listening ear.” Ironically, much of DeVos’s commencement speech centered on the importance of listening before speaking:

The natural instinct is to join in the chorus of conflict, to make your voice louder, your point bigger, and your position stronger. But we will not solve the significant and real problems our country faces if we cannot bring ourselves to embrace a mindset of grace. We must first listen, then speak—with humility—to genuinely hear the perspectives of those with whom we don’t immediately or instinctively agree.

In a statement on Wednesday night, DeVos responded to the controversy using similar language. “One of the hallmarks of higher education, and of democracy, is the ability to converse with and learn from those with whom we disagree,” DeVos said. “I have respect for all those who attended [the commencement], including those who demonstrated their disagreement with me.”

Though pronounced, Wednesday’s student reaction was not altogether surprising. Prior to the commencement ceremony, multiple petitions circulated on Bethune-Cookman’s campus, expressing concern over DeVos’s upcoming appearance. The petitions, which together featured around 60,000 signatures, were delivered to school officials on Tuesday. Before the event, Jackson wrote a letter to the campus community defending the university’s invitation. “If our students are robbed of the opportunity to experience and interact with views that may be different from their own, then they will be tremendously less equipped for the demands of democratic citizenship,” Jackson wrote.

The response failed to resonate with the Florida chapter of the NAACP, which called for Jackson to resign. On Wednesday, a small number of protesters from the NAACP, Florida Education Association, and the American Federation of Teachers gathered at the Daytona Beach convention center where the commencement was held.

In a petition on Change.org, Dominik Whitehead, a 2010 graduate of Bethune-Cookman, said that students understood the importance of engagement and open communication, but felt it was inappropriate for DeVos to serve as the university’s commencement speaker. “Bethune-Cookman University doesn’t need a photo op from the Trump Administration,” the petition reads. The statement calls to mind criticism of a February photo featuring President Trump and representatives from America’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The photo went viral for a number of reasons, including the fact that Trump invited the representatives for a “listening session,” only to spend less than ten minutes in conversation with them.