Mar 28, 2014 04:55 PM EDT By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

The president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America will serve as Barnard College's commencement speaker, Campus Reform reported.

Cecile Richards will address approximately 600 members of the Class of 2014 when she delivers the keynote address at the Columbia University-affiliated school's graduation ceremony on May 18. She will also receive the Barnard Medal of Distinction, the school's highest honor, along with three honorees.

"Her extraordinary insight and experience will inspire our graduates, whose own lives and careers will contribute to the future of these critically important issues for women everywhere," Barnard President Debora Spar said in a statement.

Richards was selected as keynote speaker based on the assumption that those graduates' "lives and careers will contribute to the future of these critically important issues for women everywhere," Campus Reform reported.

 "Throughout her career, Cecile Richards has advocated for civic engagement and public participation as essential components of law-making and the political process,"Spar said.  "Now, as head of Planned Parenthood, she is at the center of the ongoing national dialogue on women's rights and health."

However, some students are not happy with the Richards being the commencement speaker.

Fourth-year student Kate Christensen, who is the president of the College Republicans at Columbia University,  said the selection was a "devastating" one which would turn some students' graduation day into "an experience of profound alienation," Campus Reform reported.

"It is truly devastating that Barnard chose a speaker who bears the banner of abortion - one of the most polarizing, impassioned subjects of morality in the history of modern civilization," she wrote in an op-ed in the Columbia Spectator, Columbia University's daily student newspaper. "For an event that is supposed to be celebratory, uniting, and joyous, why must the school choose a speaker who is so deeply divisive?" 

Barnard College's 122nd commencement is scheduled for May 14 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

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