Bryant University Selfies Has The College President Pulling An Obama

Over at Bryant University, selfies are apparently a big no-no if you want to pose with college president Ronald Machtley during the graduation ceremony. But is the university simply pulling a President Obama or do they have a good reason for the policy?

In a related report by The Inquisitr, taking a selfie in front of a moving train is a bad idea, and one conductor thought a boot to a teen’s head might clear up his confusion. Now taking a selfie with Pope Francis is definitely a good idea, and the Catholic leader snapped a photo shortly following a Palm Sunday homily.

In the case of President Obama’s selfie, Red Sox slugger David Ortiz took an opportunity to pose with the POTUS during a trip to the White House. Unfortunately, the Obama selfie was used by Samsung as a marketing gimmick to promote their smartphones, which is similar to how Ellen Degeneres’ famous Oscars selfie was actually a setup even though it appeared to be entirely natural.

In the case of Ortiz, the difference was that he claimed his selfie with Obama was not paid for up by Samsung:

“No way, man. I don’t understand where that stuff is coming from. I guess people are always going to have their opinions. I learned a long time ago, I’m not going to make everybody happy. You don’t get a chance to get a photo with the president every day. It happened and I appreciate it. It’s an honor for us to get to hang out with him for a short period of time. I did take a lot of pictures of the White House, but it wasn’t anything on purpose.”

Because of the incident the White House was considering banning selfies with Obama, but Jay Carney eventually confirmed they nixed that idea. Of course, we have not seen any Obama selfies since then, unless you count Vice President Joe Biden’s first selfie with his boss.

Getting back to Bryant University, selfies with the other president are not being banned because Machtley feels high and might like Obama. Instead, the graduation ceremony is said to take over three hours as it is and the college is simply asking students to refrain from stopping with the president for a selfie after they receive their diploma on stage. They’re afraid that if enough of the 800 students were to stop then the proceedings would be dragged out for everyone.

Machtley says he loves stopping for photos with students on campus and it’s not like Bryant University’s selfies policy is a hard rule:

“If a student asked me for a selfie on stage, I wouldn’t say no. The university is saving me from myself.”

Sheila Guay, the university’s director of conferences and special events, also believes that Bryant University’s selfies policy would allow families to take better photos of them on-stage compared to if they’re standing there with their smartphones up to their face. Still, whatever you do, I doubt it’ll beat the photo above of the astronaut selfie.