Columbia University has canceled the graduation ceremony scheduled for May 15 for security reasons due to tensions arising from the repression of pro-Palestinian protests on its campus, officials at the institution announced this Monday. In its place, the center of the Ivy League – the prestigious league that brings together eight of the best universities in the United States – will organize “smaller-scale celebrations, by schools and faculties,” according to the statement. Despite the evacuation of campuses and police repression of the main protests, new raids over the weekend bring the total number of detainees on campuses to more than 2,300 in almost 50 faculties across the country.
Columbia’s announcement — which alludes only vaguely to the turmoil of recent weeks on campus — leaves open the possibility of a smaller, almost symbolic graduation celebration. “These past few weeks have been incredibly difficult for our community,” the statement explains. Columbia is not the only American university experiencing a turbulent time. At the University of Michigan on Saturday, dozens of protesters waved Palestinian flags and some students marched to the stage where diplomas were being awarded before being detained by police. A day later, at Northeastern University, a student wearing a kufiya (Palestinian scarf) and a T-shirt with the slogan Divest (disinvest from Israel, the main student demand) ran towards the stage before being stopped by the agents.
“Just as we listened to the students’ opinions, we are studying the possibility of holding a festive event on May 15 to replace the large formal ceremony,” which 15,000 students and their respective families were scheduled to attend. It was in fact the disruption of the festive plans due to the large protest camp on the central esplanade and the occupation of a building by 46 people, which pushed the rector of Columbia to request police intervention last Tuesday to “reestablish the order and facilitate the normal development of academic life.” The university then asked police to maintain a presence on campus until at least May 17.
Columbia University’s main campus — there is another north of Manhattan — has been virtually closed since last Tuesday, when hundreds of police officers invaded Hamilton Hall to clear protesters and detained more than 100 people on campus and its surroundings. Columbia maintains that Hamilton Hall — which was renamed Hind Hall, in memory of a Palestinian girl gruesomely killed in Gaza — remains a crime scene, raising questions about how the 15,000 graduates and their guests could be accommodated with security guarantees in place. Dozens of police officers continue to surround the center.
The cancellation of graduation for security reasons is just the penultimate breakdown of daily life, and of the feeling of university community, after pro-Palestinian protesters started a camp on April 17 that was dismantled the next day by the police at their request, Likewise, from the rector, Nemat Minouche Shafik. The eviction of that camp gave rise to the second and lit the fuse of protests throughout the country. The criticism of a good part of the faculty towards the repressive measures adopted by the rectorate is increasing, and is especially acute against Shafik herself – many professors are asking for a vote of censure -, while the demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza not only do not subside, but they sprout on new campuses and with other formats. The protest puts President Joe Biden in increasing trouble, who needs every last vote in November – that is, also the vote of young people – to win over Republican Donald Trump.
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New law against anti-Semitism
Last Thursday, in his first direct reference to the university mobilization, Biden defended the right of protesters to show their opposition to the Gaza war and condemned the anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred that, in his opinion, occur in some of the protests. A day earlier, the House of Representatives had approved a bill to address the rise of anti-Semitism on campuses, after months of heated debate on the matter. The so-called Anti-Semitism Awareness Act provides for the adoption of the definition of anti-Semitism formulated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance when applying federal anti-discrimination laws in educational programs. The bill was approved by 320 votes in favor and 91 against. About twenty Republicans and 70 Democrats voted against the measure, demonstrating the division in Biden’s party.
The approximately 200 students arrested at Columbia in the two evictions face academic suspension, with the risk of losing the semester, and, some, expulsion after receiving a letter declaring them personae non gratae. Although the reasons for the campus cleanup have more to do with complaints from donors willing to withdraw their funds if order is not restored—they allude to the protesters’ alleged anti-Semitic messages and the insecurity and discomfort of Jewish students in front of them. —, the university has at all times stated its desire not to deprive a special moment, that of graduation, to the students who four years ago finished high school confined by the pandemic and, therefore, could not celebrate it publicly.
The demands of the students demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza include asking the university to renounce its investments linked to Israel, demanding the readmission of expelled students and verbal recognition of “the existence and humanity” of Palestine, according to the page of Students for Justice in Palestine, one of the dozens of associations on campus.
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