Atlanta's Emory University has no plans to rescind an invitation to former Irish president and UN human rights official Mary Robinson to be the keynote speaker at its May 10th graduation ceremony, despite a petition claiming she failed to show sensitivity to anti-Semitism.
A student who took issue with Ms Robinson's performance as UN high commissioner for human rights began an e-mail petition in late March to force the university to uninvite her.
Mr Jared Green, an MBA student at Emory's Goizueta Business School, claimed to have gathered 1,000 signatures from students and faculty, although the legitimacy of some of the signatures has been challenged.
"I think in terms of being a peacekeeper and a leader, she's more of a diplomat," Mr Green said. "She's not willing to step out on a limb and take the hard road."
Ms Robinson, the first woman president of Ireland, held the high commissioner post from 1997 to 2002.
But her tenure was marred, in the eyes of critics, by a 2001 UN-organised meeting in Tehran, Iran, that preceded a racism conference in Durban, South Africa.
They say she responded slowly to discrimination by the Iranian government against Jewish groups and Israelis barred from attending the Tehran meeting, and that she did not act decisively enough in curbing anti-Semitic language by some delegates at the Durban conference.
Mr Gary Hauk, secretary of the university, said he was surprised by the accusations. "We were very aware there was controversy around the Durban conference," Mr Hauk said.
"But the interpretation of that as her having been anti-Semitic never came to the surface and seemed to pale in the light of the other things she had done as human rights commissioner."
Ms Robinson met with about 25 students and faculty members to discuss the concerns on April 5th, Mr Hauk said. The university did not change its plans to have Ms Robinson speak at the graduation.