Linda McMahon replaces Tom Brokaw as SHU undergraduate commencement speaker

The #MeToo movement has found its way to Sacred Heart University, with the Fairfield-based institution replacing embattled television broadcaster Tom Brokaw as its undergraduate commencement speaker on May 13 with Linda McMahon, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Brokaw, a longtime anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” was initially announced as the undergraduate commencement speaker on March 12. However, SHU President John Petillo alerted the university community via an internal memo that Brokaw voluntarily withdrew from the event after he was accused by a female ex-NBC reporter of repeated sexual misconduct during the 1990s. Brokaw adamantly denied the accusations against him, claiming his accuser was someone who “left NBC angry that she failed in her pursuit of stardom.”

An updated SHU website announcement related to the commencement made no mention of Brokaw, focusing instead on McMahon”™s local roots as the creator of the SHU “Women Can Have It All” speaker series and her work as co-founder and CEO of Stamford-based WWE. Richard Edelman, president and CEO of the New York-based Edelman public relations agency, will deliver the address for the graduate student commencement ceremony.