Bush Honored at Prestigious Black School : Commencement: Hampton University cited the President’s support. Some students protested by refusing to stand or applaud for him.

President Bush was honored Sunday for his longstanding support of black education by Hampton University, one of the nation’s oldest and richest black universities, but he was coolly but politely snubbed by much of the graduating class.

The decision of the Hampton trustees and its president, William R. Harvey, to invite Bush to give the commencement address and receive an honorary degree had provoked at least one student protest in recent weeks, primarily because graduating students had not been consulted and because of their dissatisfaction with Administration civil rights policies.

But the protest was extremely low-key, consisting more of omissions than demonstrations. Indeed, negative notes were so unobtrusive that Bush easily could pretend not to notice. A fairly large number of seniors declined to stand or applaud when the President arrived, but only a scattered few delivered the clenched-fist salutes for which some campus dissenters had called.

When Bush, Harvey and other university dignitaries filed onto the dais at Hampton’s Armstrong Field, about a third of the graduates, who were standing, sat down at the first strains of “Hail to the Chief.” For a moment or two, others hesitated, bobbing up and down, until perhaps half of them were in their seats.

Harvey quickly lauded Bush for his longstanding support for the United Negro College Fund--a cause to which he was recruited while still an undergraduate at Yale--and for continuing support for historically black colleges and universities, of which Hampton is one of the most prestigious.

“You supported us before it became fashionable, and you stayed with us after others thought we were an anachronism,” Harvey said. “For that I thank you, Mr. President.” He conferred on Bush an honorary doctor of law degree, and spectators and parents applauded politely. But graduating seniors mostly sat in silence.

The only public opportunity for a student to deliver any message of dissent to Bush came with the brief address of Carvel Lewis, the senior class president, who instead asked the President to consider the 1,000 graduates to be examples of “your thousand points of light.” Lewis added only a faint caveat:

“We reaffirm our faith in the land of the free and the home of the brave and are ready to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness--as long as the country does the same for us.”

In his remarks, Bush touched on a wide array of Administration programs but avoided addressing specific civil rights issues, touching on Administration policies on free trade, free choice in public education, tenant ownership of public housing, expanded Head Start funding, deregulation and a cut in the capital gains tax.

He assailed opponents of a free-trade agreement with Mexico as resorting to “slurs against our Mexican neighbors” in a fit of “prejudice (that) is nothing more than a breed of cowardice.”

“The programs I’ve discussed today give every American, rich or poor or middle class, white or black or brown, a fair chance to pursue his or her destiny,” Bush declared. “We have a chance to rekindle the kind of optimism that characterized the civil rights movement of the ‘60s--one in which men and women of all races and background joined to pursue goals that we all hold dear.”

When the President finished speaking, only a scattering of seniors rose or applauded. About 50 raised their right arms in the black power salutes.

Speaking to reporters before the exercises began, a few seniors explained why they were not entirely enthusiastic about Bush’s presence at their school.

“Based on his political background, I don’t think he is an appropriate speaker for our commencement,” said Andre A. Wells of Jacksonville, Fla., who was graduated in human ecology.

Added Amy R. Savage of Hillsborough, N.J., who was being awarded a degree in finance: “It’s an honor for him to speak, but I think they went about it the wrong way without asking the senior class.”