New York University student leaders are blasting Jonathan Haidt’s selection as this year’s commencement speaker, saying his invitation is “deeply unsettling” and conflicts with the values they say the school should be celebrating. NYU still planned to have Haidt address graduates on Thursday at Yankee Stadium.

In a May 5 open letter, leaders of the NYU Student Government Assembly’s Executive Committee accused Haidt of making homophobic remarks in a class and spreading public misconceptions about transgender identity. They also cited what they called disturbing rhetoric around antiracism, social justice and diversity, equity and inclusion, saying he had suggested the abolition of DEI may be the only way out of the “Leftist ideological capture” of American campuses.

The dispute puts a prominent academic and author at the center of one of the most visible rituals in the university calendar. Haidt teaches social psychology at NYU’s Stern School of Business and has built a national profile over more than a decade as an outspoken critic of campus politics, culture-war excesses and what he sees as the damage done by cancel culture.

That profile is part of why the backlash landed so sharply. On May 6, Mehr Kotval wrote in an opinion piece for Washington Square News that Haidt was “an anti-woke author who has consistently patronized student activists” and called the commencement invitation a “last parting gift of disrespect” from NYU. Haidt, through a spokesperson, declined to comment on the student opposition, reported.

NYU did not move off its plan to have him speak. A school spokesperson called Haidt “one of the most consequential scholars of the 21st century,” a striking defense that underscored how little appetite the university showed for changing course before Thursday’s ceremony at Yankee Stadium.

The choice also reflects the long arc of Haidt’s career. He published The Righteous Mind in 2012, co-authored The Coddling of the American Mind with Greg Lukianoff in 2018, published The Happiness Hypothesis in 2020 and released The Anxious Generation in 2024. He also co-founded Heterodox Academy, an online group that says it is dedicated to open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, free exchange of ideas and constructive disagreement.

The tension here is not just about a speaker list. It is about the collision between a university’s public embrace of intellectual diversity and student anger over what they see as Haidt’s record on transgender identity, DEI, antiracism and social justice. That friction helps explain why the selection drew immediate resistance even before graduates took their seats.

Haidt’s response to controversy elsewhere only sharpened the contrast. Last year, during efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to push ABC to cancel Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he wrote on X that “Cancel culture is terrible.” He added that he had opposed it publicly for more than a decade and said government intimidation was even more chilling and a clearer violation of the First Amendment.

At NYU, though, the argument is no longer abstract. The university has chosen Haidt, the students have registered their objection in writing, and the speech is still set to go forward. The question now is not whether the invitation will be controversial. It already is. The real test is whether NYU’s decision to stand by it signals a firm defense of open inquiry or simply a willingness to absorb the backlash.