Columbia holds commencement for undergraduates after weeks of protests

NEW YORK — The first graduate to walk across the stage, the valedictorian of Columbia College, wore a kaffiyeh tightly wrapped around her shoulders and held up a sign: DIVEST. Another graduate turned around to show a blue gown painted with stark black letters: DIVEST FROM GENOCIDE.

For several hours Tuesday, there were countless references to Columbia University’s divided, difficult year, including from speakers at the undergraduates’ Class Day ceremony. It was held at the school’s athletic complex far north of Columbia’s Morningside campus. Embattled president Minouche Shafik did not appear at this or other Class Day ceremonies in recent days.

But the event also saw waves of beaming graduates in Columbia-blue caps and gowns, gasping with delight when they saw their faces caught on the big screen, hugging Dean Josef Sorett as they paraded across the stage and dancing afterward with friends in the crowd.

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Students flooded 218th Street with minimal police presence, the loudest rumbling coming from a passing elevated subway train. Joe Fortner and Sofia Del Rio, both 23 and engaged to be married in June after meeting the first week of their freshman year, playfully made their balloons — lions, the school’s mascot — tussle midair.

“Today showed that the kids are what makes this school,” Del Rio said.

After months of roiling protests over the Israel-Gaza war, police crackdowns, and intense external pressure from lawmakers, donors and others about campus antisemitism and student calls for divestment, the university on May 6 canceled its traditional annual commencement ceremony at its Morningside campus.

The decision was welcomed by some as a necessary concession to urgent safety concerns. Hundreds of New York City police in riot gear had been summoned to Columbia just days before and forcibly removed pro-Palestinian protesters. Many Jewish students had gone home as demonstrations both inside and outside the school’s gates took on an increasingly hostile tone.

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To others, the cancellation of the university-wide commencement symbolized the university’s inability to overcome the strength of the movement. The use of force to dispel protesters generated outrage from students, faculty members and others who felt that it struck at Columbia’s proud history of student activism. Some faculty members are moving forward with a no-confidence vote this week, and some are striking, calling for the police to leave campus.

To many, it was simply another loss, in a tumultuous year with disruptions to all aspects of university life, ultimately leading the administration to shut the gates of the main campus for days to almost all of its own community members.

In recent days, restrictions were eased for students and the faculty, “but there are so many cops still, it’s super weird,” said graduating senior Tejasri Vijayakumar, Columbia College’s student body president. She described an unusual feeling of emptiness on the lawn where the biggest commencement usually takes place, where protest tents recently stood.

“That seems to be the strategy, right? To just get rid of any space where there could be freedom of assembly or freedom of speech,” she said. “If students come on campus to protest, just close down all of campus.”

The decision about the main graduation event left the focus on individual schools within the roughly 35,000-student university, with celebrations that in many cases reflected those student bodies: At the engineering school’s undergraduate ceremony Monday, most graduates tripped rapidly across the stage in requisite Columbia-blue cap and gown for a handshake, many waving to family members in the audience, with little sign of activism.

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At the General Studies ceremony the same day, there were more kaffiyehs as well as more community: Children were led by the hand across the stage, and there were babies, dogs and people blowing up inflatable owls to be tossed into the air. Only near the end of the program did protesters begin chanting. The school’s dean, Lisa Rosen-Metsch, paused, smiling — perhaps resignedly — and waiting.

“Okay!” she said, as the chants quieted, leaning into the microphone to call out a full-throated congratulations to the Class of 2024.

“Lisa! Lisa! Lisa!” the crowd responded.

A more uncertain, sometimes tense atmosphere marked the School of Social Work’s formalities Friday. Many of its graduates wore kaffiyehs over their regalia and brandished signs or waved Palestinian flags. Some ditched the cap and gown entirely, walking the stage defiantly in black and white clothes. A couple appeared to have duct tape over their mouths.

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One student held an Israeli flag as he came onstage. At least two crossed with zip-tied wrists.

Elsewhere in the country, other commencement ceremonies also were disrupted by protests.

In Boston, the pro-Palestinian chants could be heard immediately as Emerson College’s commencement began Sunday morning. More than 1,000 students received degrees at Agganis Arena, and about 1 in 5 entered with a fist in the air as a show of solidarity to the people in Gaza.

At one point, some 40 graduates stood up and chanted pro-Palestinian slogans while names being awarded graduate degrees were called out. The interruptions were often met with loud boos from families and friends.

Emerson was the site of more than 100 arrests on April 25 as Boston police sought to break up a pro-Palestinian protest and campus encampment, and college president Jay Bernhardt later expressed regret for the officers’ actions.

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On Sunday, some graduates chose to make a statement during their moment onstage — removing gowns to reveal Palestinian signs and symbols, refusing to shake hands with Bernhardt. One student draped a Palestinian flag over the podium. It was quickly removed.

Yet elsewhere, the traditions of graduation held firm.

At the University of Texas on Saturday night, one of the largest commencements in the country saw little evidence of the unrest that had marred the campus last month and led to two waves of arrests of more than 120 people.

Some 50,000 people attended the ceremony at the huge Darrell K. Royal Stadium. Of the approximately 10,000 graduates who filed onto the stadium floor, only a few wore kaffiyehs and had “Free Palestine” taped onto their mortar boards. A single Palestinian flag surfaced, held up by a graduate student as he walked in.

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On Tuesday, an impasse at Harvard University was resolved before the school’s commencement next week when protesters voluntarily ended their 20-day encampment. The Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine coalition said it had decided to do so after reaching an agreement with university leaders on multiple fronts.

Interim university president Alan M. Garber wrote in a letter to the campus community that he will facilitate a meeting with Harvard officials, including the chair of the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility, to address questions about the endowment. He also said he and the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will meet with students to hear their perspectives on academic matters related to Middle East conflicts.

In addition, the school will start “reinstatement proceedings” for people who had been placed on involuntary leaves of absence during the encampment, Garber said.

At Columbia, Himesh Patel, a grandfather of a senior, was philosophical about all the scuttled graduation plans and ceremonies. It reminded him of his rained-out wedding, he said. “If your heart is in the moment, that’s all that matters in the end.”

Molly Hennessy-Fiske in Austin and Stephanie Morales in Boston contributed to this report.

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