Statistics show that commencement speakers are rarely conservative.

Now, the number show that when they get the rare invitation to give a graduation address, they then become the focus of “tolerant” liberal activism.

Of the Top 10 biggest controversies surrounding graduation speakers this commencement season, seven specifically targeted conservatives or business leaders, a survey by The College Fix found.

The embattled speakers’ pro-business or fiscal conservative stances, opposition to same-sex marriage, or concerns about President Barack Obama thrust them into the spotlight, and for most of them – eventually off the podium.

Five of the seven scandals erupted in March and April.

The notable black conservative Dr. Ben Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, withdrew as a graduation speaker at Johns Hopkins University after social progressives and students mounted pressure – including a petition – against him because of comments he made against gay marriage.

At the swanky, private liberal arts institution Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, after weeks of intense and sometimes personal attacks on Robert Zoellick and his political reputation by students in campus newspapers, the former president of the World Bank and U.S. trade representative backed out of speaking at the commencement ceremony at Swarthmore – his alma mater.

Both Carson and Zoellick cited their desire not to detract from students’ major milestone moment as part of the reason to withdraw.

Also in April, the Rev. Kevin Johnson, a black pastor who dared criticized President Barack Obama, was disinvited to speak at his alma mater’s graduation ceremony, the historically black Morehouse College, because of his criticism against the president. Johnson had accused Obama of  moving African-American leadership backward.

Over at Skidmore College, a private, New York-based liberal arts institution, students protested and started a petition against planned graduation speaker Cynthia Blum Carroll, head of the mining company Anglo-American, citing her company’s alleged transgressions against the environmental and human rights.

Ultimately, Carroll spoke at the Skidmore commencement, but not before some students had to defend the commencement pick.

In May, conservative speakers attacked by liberals included Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, who addressed Millersville University and received a chilly reception. Corbett, faced with the nation’s ongoing economic recession, had reduced higher education spending in his state, and that didn’t set well with students, some of whom turned their chairs away from Corbett when he spoke…….”