NEW YORK — Columbia University on Monday (May 6) cancelled its main graduation ceremony after weeks of pro-Palestinian protests roiled the Ivy League college's campus, but it will still hold smaller, school-based events.
"Holding a large commencement ceremony on our campus presented security concerns that unfortunately proved insurmountable," said Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang. "Like our students, we are deeply disappointed with this outcome." Graduation had been scheduled for May 15.
Chang said the university had sought an alternative venue but was unable to find one that could accommodate the students, families, and guests in attendance, who normally exceed 50,000.
The protests at Columbia, which drew national attention, have inspired similar demonstrations at dozens of universities around the US Students have called for a ceasefire in Gaza and have demanded their schools divest from companies with ties to Israel.
On Monday, Hamas said it agreed to a ceasefire proposal with Israel in Gaza. Israel said it was a "softened" Egyptian proposal that was not acceptable to Israel.
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During the seven-month-old war more than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's military operations in Gaza, according to health officials in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave. The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting 252 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
As protests gathered steam at US colleges, some universities, including Columbia, called in riot police wielding batons and flash-bang grenades to disperse and arrest hundreds of protesters, citing a paramount need for campus safety. Civil rights groups have decried such tactics as unnecessarily violent infringements on free speech.
The turmoil on campuses has prompted colleges across the United States to relocate, modify or cancel commencement ceremonies altogether.
In April, the University of Southern California also called off its main-stage ceremony, one week after cancelling the valedictorian speech by a Muslim student who said she was silenced by anti-Palestinian hatred.
Columbia said on Monday it had consulted with student leaders in deciding how to handle graduation. The majority of the smaller ceremonies, which had been set to take place on its upper Manhattan campus, where most of the protests have taken place, will take place at the main athletic complex about five miles (8 km) away.
The demonstrations have emerged as a political flashpoint during a contentious US election year as Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican former U.S President Donald Trump face off in a rematch for the White House.
Republican US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson — who condemned Columbia's administrators, accusing them of being too lenient on demonstrators during a campus visit in April — blasted them again on Monday, saying the decision to cancel commencement denied thousands of graduates the recognition they deserved.
Johnson also called on the school's board of trustees to remove university President Nemat Minouche Shafik, adding that the cancellation showed she would rather "cede control to Hamas supporters than restore order."
A rally to support Jewish, Israeli-American and Israeli students was planned for Monday evening near Columbia's campus by an Israel advocacy group, the Israeli-American Council, which called the campus protests "anti-Israel and antisemitic."
New York City police cleared a Columbia building last week that had been barricaded by pro-Palestinian protesters, arresting more than 100 people in and around the campus and dismantling an encampment.
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Other US universities have continued grappling this week with how to clear their campuses of protesters.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge near Boston told protesters on Monday that if they did not leave an encampment by 2.30 pm EDT (1830 GMT), they would face immediate suspension, preventing them from participating in any academic activities for the rest of the semester.
"No matter how peaceful the students' behaviour may be, unilaterally taking over a central portion of our campus... and precluding use by other members of our community is not right," MIT President Sally Kornbluth said in a statement.
At nearby Harvard University, interim President Alan Garber said on Monday that protesters who continued participating in a two-week-old encampment would be referred for "involuntary leave," meaning they may not be able to sit for exams, reside in Harvard housing or be on campus until reinstated.
"As we begin our extensive preparations for Commencement, this ongoing violation of our policies becomes more consequential," said Garber, citing reports from some students that the camp disrupted their ability to sleep, study and move freely about the campus.
At the University of California, Los Angeles, where pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protesters clashed last week and where police arrested more than 200 people while clearing a pro-Palestinian encampment on Thursday, Chancellor Gene Block on Sunday announced a new Office of Campus Safety.
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