The Student Government Assembly’s Executive Committee condemned the NYU’s selection of Stern professor and “The Anxious Generation” author Jonathan Haidt as its commencement speaker in a Friday Instagram post, criticizing his “disturbing rhetoric around antiracism, social justice and diversity, equity and inclusion.”

The four-member committee called Haidt’s selection “a regression” from previous commencement speakers, citing his yearslong history of criticizing of progressive university culture. They emailed the statement to administrators on May 5, asking them to reconsider the decision amid students’ “unnecessary disappointment and resentment.”

“Students are astonished by the university’s inability to leverage its vast network and unique connections to secure a speaker whose scholarship and global contributions more accurately reflect the values and diversity of its graduates,” the statement read.

Haidt’s work — which argues that smartphone and social media use deteriorate young people’s mental health and have fueled rising mental illness rates among teenagers — inspired NYU IRL, a program promoting device-free zones and events on campus. In the Friday post, the SGA stated that NYU IRL, which has garnered widespread national press coverage, is “an initiative some students find reductive and oblivious to far more pressing matters than digital distraction.”

“By elevating a platform that treats ‘device-free’ as a radical act, the university is effectively disregarding the very real-world crises and systemic hurdles that have defined our graduates’ experiences,” the statement read. “In a world marked by sustained attacks on higher education and the global unraveling of diversity, equity and inclusion, which has only deepened inequities, Professor Haidt is not the appropriate individual to address the Class of 2026.”

Haidt, who is still slated to address graduates on Thursday at Yankee Stadium, co-founded a college to counter “illiberalism” and “wokeism” in higher education in 2021 — before quietly cutting his ties to the institution in 2025. In 2015, he also launched the Heterodox Academy, a nonprofit comprising over 8,000 students and faculty that aims to combat a perceived lack of viewpoint diversity in academia.

The Stern professor drew controversy in 2022 when he refused to write a required statement on equity and inclusion for a social psychology event, at which he was scheduled to speak, and resigned from the organization in protest. Haidt has also criticized trigger warnings for college reading material, claiming that they encourage students to “develop extra-thin skin,” and faced backlash in 2014 for displaying a video comparing incest to gay sex during a classroom lecture.   

Published in 2024, Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation” has been a New York Times nonfiction bestseller for two years and sparked a movement pushing states to adopt policies that restrict cell phone use in schools and set age limits for social media. Haidt’s scholarship has also been praised by Yale University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and TED, among other institutions. 

“The discourse behind the university’s reasoning for Haidt’s selection has also left many confused and speculative,”  SGA leaders wrote in the statement. “There is growing consensus across campus that this selection was less about honoring the graduates and more about honoring a single narrative while simultaneously averting risk.” 

SGA Chair Ashlie Oxford declined WSN’s request for comment.

Correction, 5/13: This article has been updated to clarify the Student Government Assembly’s Executive Committee issued the statement, not SGA itself.

Contact Zachary Karp at [email protected].