Columbia and Emory universities had changed their graduation plans during the last few weeks
Emory College’s Commencement Site: Students Cancel a U.S. University Graduation Ceremony and the Construction of a Public Safety Training Center
An FAQ on Emory’s commencement webpage also outlines the school’s expression-related protocols for commencement, which it says are “similar to events that are held on campus.”
Gas South District venues have various requirements for security screening, event safety, and guest conduct, according to its website, including prohibiting backpacks and “signs on sticks or oversized signs (no larger than 8 1/2″ x 11″).”
The protest drew a large police presence but attempts to break up the camp were unsuccessful, in part due to faculty members blocking the path.
The faculty of arts and science voted no confidence in Fenves, and undergraduate students held a vote of their own on Monday.
The announcement comes after more than a week of student protests against the Israel-Hamas war and the construction of a controversial public safety training center, dubbed “Cop City.”
Columbia is the second major university to cancel part of its graduation ceremony. The University of Southern California announced in late April that it would cancel its main graduation ceremony, several days and considerable backlash after it scrapped its valedictorian speech over security concerns.
The institution announced in Monday’s announcement that based on feedback from students they will prioritize class days and school level ceremonies where students are honored individually along with their peers.
“Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families,” the announcement from Columbia reads. “They are eager to cross the stage to applause and family pride and hear from their school’s invited guest speakers. As a result, we will focus our resources on those school ceremonies and on keeping them safe, respectful, and running smoothly.”
The Columbian, Barnard, and Columbia campuses will host pro-Palestinian, pro-divestment protests on May 13
Protesters set up a protest site on the campus of the university that supports Palestinians to call attention to the university’s ties to Israeli companies they say are supporting the war in Gaza.
Those ceremonies will move to the Baker Athletics Complex, Columbia’s main venue for outdoor sports. The events will run from May 10-16, with tickets required. Columbia College will hold its ceremony on the morning of May 14, followed by the affiliated Barnard College the next day.
She wrote to the NYPD on April 30, as police arrived to remove pro-Palestinian protesters who had occupied a building on campus earlier that day. The second time that month, city police were called in to break up protests on campus.
More than 50 students were arrested in pro-Palestinian, pro-divestment actions earlier this year, but no protesters were arrested as a result of that demonstration.
The university had already switched to hybrid learning and was put under lock and key. 112 protesters were arrested after police entered Hamilton Hall. New York City officials said over the weekend that 29% of them were not affiliated with the school.
Shafik has faced widespread criticism and calls to resign from both sides of the aisle over her handling of the protest, though maintains the backing of Columbia’s board of trustees.
Some schools are forging ahead with graduation as planned, but expect some protests during the day. Over the weekend, students and faculty at Indiana University held an alternate graduation ceremony, while dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters waving flags and banners briefly disrupted the University of Michigan’s graduation.
The change affects the May 13 ceremony at the university as well as the diplomas for all of its schools. Graduation events will begin on May 10, according to a revised calendar.
The Gas South District: A University Campus in the midst of a Pro–Palestinian Era? Student Lobbying, Negotiating, and Digging Into Israel
The Gas South District is located in the area that includes an arena and a convention center. It is 30 miles from the Oxford campus and 20 miles from the Atlanta campus.
He said that the decision was not taken lightly. “It was made in close consultation with the Emory Police Department, security advisors, and other agencies — each of which advised against holding Commencement events on our campuses.”
The Class of 2024, he noted, was forced to start school online after the swine flue interrupted their high school graduations.
As the latest wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at U.S. colleges stretches into a third week, some campuses are seeing rising tensions while others have gone relatively quiet.
Protesters at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus reached an agreement with the administration on Thursday, capping off a tumultuous few weeks.
Protesters’ demands vary by school, though they generally call for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, disclosures of institutional investments and divestment from companies with ties to Israel or that otherwise profit from its military operation in Gaza.
The University of Minnesota, the University of California, and Rutgers were the first to sign agreements last week.
Police were eventually called in to forcibly take down student tents at some universities. But others managed to clear their lawns of tents without police intervention — through negotiations with student organizers.
Michael Schill told WBUR’s Here and now that the best way to deescalate the situation was to talk with the students. “We have a good sustainable agreement that provides many things the students wanted, and we wanted to do.”
The demands were presented by the coalition of student groups. The school agreed to eight of them but declined to divest from companies doing business in Israel and terminate its partnership with Tel Aviv University.
Not all activists are satisfied with the terms of their deals, but many are celebrating the agreements as incremental steps in a long-running fight for divestment that, at many schools, far predates Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing response.
“When it comes to the actual momentum that this agreement gives us, I cannot emphasize enough how huge it is,” said Lucas, a Northwestern student who asked to only use his first name because of concerns about online harassment.
The president of the university warned that vandalizing and reports of harassment could result in legal consequences, even if they were not criminal.
“We do not want to move in this direction unless necessary and much prefer to talk with protesters about things we can do as an institution to address the war in Gaza,” Roth wrote. There have been recent agreements at Brown University.
There are only community members who can demonstrate on Deering Meadow through June 1, and no sound amplification devices or tents. The Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility will have input from students, faculty and staff this fall.
The funds will go towards the cost of attendance for five Palestinian undergraduates, as well as provide immediate temporary space for Middle East students, engage students, and ensure additional support for Jewish and Muslim community members.
Some Jewish groups have taken issue with the terms of the agreement, which they say leaves Jewish students feeling unsafe. There are two lawsuits, one from students and the other from an anti-affirmative action group.
Seven members of the President’s Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate stepped down after the agreement was announced, citing Schill’s decision not to consult it during negotiations.
A group called on Schill to resign because of the “reprehensible and dangerous agreement.” Separately, the American Jewish Committee accused Northwestern of “succumbing to the demands of a mob which has intimidated Jewish students, espoused antisemitic, hate-filled speech, and whose members have celebrated Hamas terrorists.”
In an April 30 video Schill, who is Jewish, stood up for the agreement and denounced the posters of him with devil horns, which were antisemitic. The ban on tents and megaphones is intended to make Jewish students feel more safe, he told Here & Now.
He objected to the students being called a mob. They’re students, they’re young, sometimes nave, and so the best way for us to engage is by having dialogue with them.
Several student groups involved in the protest have issued statements of support for the agreement and pledged to keep fighting for a ceasefire and divestment.
In fact, some have already followed up on one promise of the agreement: They’ve emailed Northwestern requesting more information about its investments in companies with ties to Israel, and are expecting a response within 30 days.
Six days after the student protesters began their occupation on Brown University’s Providence, Rhode Island, campus, the administration and students reached an agreement.
“Students agreed to end the encampment and refrain from further actions that would violate Brown’s conduct code through the end of the academic year, which includes Commencement and Reunion Weekend,” she said.
Students with the Brown Divest Coalition had two central demands for the university, Isabella Garo told All Things Considered. She was involved in the negotiations with the administrators.
The first thing that the 2020 committee was going to do was to give a long tabled report to the university corporation. The students were arrested at the December sit-in.
The students were allowed to leave their campsite by 5 pm that day. In exchange, the Corporation of Brown University will invite five students to speak with a group of five of its members — including the chair of the investment committee — about the 2020 report during its May meeting.
It will not add divestment to its May agenda. Paxson will ask for advice on the topic from an advisory committee by September 30 and put it on the agenda for the corporation’s October meeting.
“I feel strongly that a vote in October, either for or against divestment, will bring clarity to an issue that is of long-standing interest to many members of our community,” Paxson said in the announcement.
She said that some people are relieved that the campaign is moving in the right direction. “Some people never liked the protests in the first place and are simply relieved the encampment is gone. There’s also some people who have expressed some disappointment — they wanted to see divestment outright.”
The next step for student activists, she said, is mobilizing in the lead-up to the October corporation. As a graduating senior, she won’t be on campus to help out. She doesn’t know what that will look like.
Protesters were told to leave by 4 p.m. or face arrest, after a rally that morning resulted in the postponement of more than two dozen final exams.
Within an hour of the deadline, student organizers accepted the revised proposal from the administration. They began clearing their tents just in time.
The end of the Rutgers Campus Dialogue? What we can learn from 4 schools that have signed an agreement with Gaza protesters?
In a letter sent to all of us, the Chancellor said that the decisions fall outside of our administrative scope. “However, following our established university policies, the divestment request is under review.”
Rutgers did agree to accept 10 displaced Palestinian students on scholarship, develop a plan for an Arab Cultural Center on campus, explore scholarly exchanges with a university in Ramallah and consider creating a Department of Middle East Studies, to name a few.
The American Jewish Committee’s regional director in New Jersey didn’t agree with the agreement and called it a capitulation.
But the Endowment Justice Collective said in an Instagram statement that it was proud of what it had achieved — without student arrests or suspensions — and determined to keep working towards its divestment goals.
They wrote, “Our decision to end our camping without achieving these demands reflects our thinking regarding building power on campus by building structural groundwork to not only grow our ranks but shift the political climate across Rutgers.”
Some campus buildings would remain closed as a result of the protests. A dozen buildings remained closed the following day, as university officials offered to meet with leaders of student groups involved in the protests, MPR News reported.
The conversations were productive when organizers met with administrators on Wednesday, the last day before final exams started. They came to an agreement before the night ended.
Interim President Jeff Ettinger announced the takeaways from the agreement the following day: Campus buildings would reopen at noon, student organizers would not disrupt finals and commencements, and representatives would get an opportunity to address the Board of Regents at its May 10 meeting.
Among them: The administration said it would consider setting up program affiliations with Palestinian universities and make a good faith effort to provide information about the university’s holding in public companies by May 7, to be supplemented by May 17.
The UMMN Divest Coalition is Working on Its First Amendment Proposal, and it Will Not Be The Same Next-to-Leading Order
He said their original meeting was scheduled for 30 minutes — but the participants “engaged in constructive conversation” for more than 90 minutes, and then met two more times to discuss the proposed agreements.
We regret that the meetings didn’t happen sooner, but we are going to meet again to discuss this coalition’s concerns.
He said while he is heartened by the initial progress, there is more work to be done. The UMN Divest Coalition made the same vow on social media after the agreement was announced.
