GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., May 21 (UPI) -- A group of 823 people associated with michigan's Calvin College have taken out a full-page newspaper ad protesting President Bush's planned commencement speech.
The advertisement, which appeared in The Grand Rapids Press, was written as an open letter to President Bush from 823 alumni, students, faculty and "friends" of the Christian liberal arts college, the Detroit News reported Saturday.
The ad says the signers are "deeply troubled" that Bush will be the speaker at Saturday's ceremony.
"In our view, the policies and actions of your administration, both domestically and internationally over the past four years, violate many deeply held principles of Calvin College," the ad read.
White House spokesman Taylor Gross said he had not seen the ad.
"The president appreciates Americans' right to peacefully protest and to express their views," Gross said.
School spokesman Phil de Haan called the advertisement's language "troubling" and "unnecessarily divisive."
"Many of the statements in the ad seem to suggest that those who drafted the ad somehow speak for the entire college," he said. "Obviously, this is not the case."
