Protests Supporting Palestine Pose Threat to Graduations

Pro-Palestinian protester encampments on college campuses across the country are threatening graduation ceremonies for the class of 2024, as many of the demonstrations are located at graduation sites and causing safety concerns for attending families.

Protests have swept the nation in the past two weeks, starting largely with Columbia University and spreading to colleges nationwide in “solidarity.” Hundreds of students and other activists have been arrested in connection to the encampments.

“I know that many of our Jewish students, and other students as well, have found the atmosphere intolerable in recent weeks,” Columbia President Minouche Shafik said in a message Monday to the school community. “Many have left campus, and that is a tragedy. To those students and their families, I want to say to you clearly: You are a valued part of the Columbia community. This is your campus too. We are committed to making Columbia safe for everyone, and to ensuring that you feel welcome and valued.”

Adding to the concerns of many graduating students is that the college class of 2024 comprises many members of the high school class of 2020, most of whom were unable to experience a traditional high school graduation due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Please recall that many in this graduating class did not get a celebration when graduating from high school because of the pandemic, and many of them are the first in their families to earn a University degree,” Shafik added.

Students at the Columbia encampment were asked to disperse and remove their tents by 2 p.m. Monday, the 13th day of protest, but students blew through that deadline and rallied around the site when the time came. The graduation ceremony is set to take place on Columbia’s main lawn, part of which is being occupied by the protesters, on May 15.

Students at Columbia have consistently missed the deadline to leave the encampment, facing little or no pressure from the school’s administration. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) criticized the school Monday afternoon, posting to X, “Columbia’s empty threats and weak leadership have failed and surrendered Columbia’s campus to the pro-Hamas antisemitic mob.”

Shafik has been in talks with the protesters on an agreement to end the protests, but those have not been fruitful thus far. New York Mayor Eric Adams has suggested he is ready to send in the New York Police Department to clear the encampment but will not do so unless Columbia asks for assistance.

“Once that request is made, you want to do it with the minimum amount of force because you are talking about young people, and you’re not trying to, in any way, jeopardize their safety,” Adams said, according to CBS News New York. “As of this time, Columbia University stated that they want to sit down and speak with the students and the other college campuses as well, and we’re not going to do anything unless the college campuses request such.”

On Monday afternoon, Jewish Voice for Peace NYC, an organization with individual school chapters that are primary organizers for the encampments, issued a call to action across the city telling allies to show up at area schools.

Similar protests have popped up along the East Coast at Harvard University, Yale University, George Washington University, the University of Mary Washington, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the University of Georgia, and many others.

The story is similar on the West Coast, where the colleges in southern California are roiled in protest with graduation dates fast approaching.

At the University of Southern California, where the Los Angeles Police Department arrested nearly 100 protesters last week, school officials canceled the May 10 valedictorian commencement speech of Muslim student Asna Tabassum, citing safety concerns, but also following a social media post from the group Trojans for Israel linking Tabassum to calling Zionism a “a racist settler-colonial ideology” and calling for the “complete abolishment” of Israel.

Facing backlash over that decision, USC canceled all graduation speakers at the primary commencement ceremony but will still host smaller commencement events, according to the East Bay Times.

California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt senior Ruby Cayenne, who is Jewish and says she is a Zionist, expressed extreme disappointment because her graduation might be disrupted, telling the New York Times, “I have put my blood, sweat and tears into getting this degree. The family on my father’s side are Cuban immigrants and they fought hard to get into this country and to provide a life where their future generations can get an education.”

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Cayenne said she has been harassed by pro-Palestinian students, who have called her things such as “genocide supporter” and “baby killer.”

However, not every university is altering graduation plans. According to the East Bay Times, the University of California, Irvine, which has also experienced large protests, will be running “business as usual,” spokesman Tom Vasich said, adding that it will be “a very different story from USC.”