NEW YORK – Pro-Palestinian protesters have been making headlines in recent weeks as they continue to call for an end to the violence in Gaza. On Monday, a group of protesters at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) broke through police barriers and encircled tents in an encampment, while Columbia University announced the cancellation of its university-wide commencement ceremony due to ongoing protests.
The encampment at MIT, which has been in place for the past two weeks, is a call for an end to the killing of thousands of people in Gaza. According to Sam Ihns, a graduate student at MIT and member of MIT Jews for a Ceasefire, the group is specifically protesting the university’s research ties to the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
In addition to the encampment, protesters also blocked Massachusetts Avenue during rush hour, causing disruptions in the Boston area. These demonstrations are just one example of the widespread protests that have been taking place at universities across the country.
Columbia University, one of the Ivy League schools, has been particularly affected by the protests. On Monday, the university announced that it would not hold its main commencement ceremony on May 15, but instead, students will be able to celebrate at smaller, school-based ceremonies throughout the week and next.
This decision comes as universities grapple with how to handle graduation ceremonies for students who missed out on their high school graduations due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Other universities, such as Emory University, have also had to make changes to their commencement plans due to ongoing protests.
Columbia’s decision to cancel its main ceremony was made after discussions with students, who expressed that the smaller, school-based celebrations would be more meaningful to them and their families. Most of the ceremonies that were originally scheduled to take place on the south lawn of the main campus, where the encampments were taken down last week, will now be held at Columbia’s sports complex, approximately 5 miles north of the main campus.
Speakers at some of Columbia’s still-scheduled graduation ceremonies include Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames and Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, director of the National Institutes of Health. However, the decision to cancel the main ceremony means that Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, will not have to deliver a commencement address in the same area where police dismantled a protest encampment last week.
Similar protests have been taking place at universities across the country, with students calling for their schools to divest from companies that do business with Israel or contribute to the war effort. The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been ongoing since October 2020, with Hamas militants attacking southern Israel and Israel launching an offensive in Gaza that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, mostly civilians.
While some universities have been able to hold their graduation ceremonies with minimal disruptions, others have had to cancel or move them to different locations due to ongoing protests. Emory University, for example, has decided to move its ceremonies to a suburban arena, almost 20 miles away from its Atlanta campus, in order to ensure the safety of its students and maintain a peaceful campus environment.
At the University of California, San Diego, police had to clear an encampment and arrest over 64 people, including 40 students. The University of California, Los Angeles, also had to move all classes online for the week due to ongoing disruptions following the dismantling of an encampment last week.
Schools have been trying various tactics to handle the protests, from offering amnesty to protesters to threatening disciplinary action. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, for example, offered protesters amnesty from academic sanctions and trespassing charges if they moved, while Harvard University’s interim president, Alan Garber, warned students that participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment could result in involuntary leave from the university.
Despite the challenges and disruptions caused by these protests, it is important to remember the underlying cause – the ongoing violence and loss of life in Gaza. As students and universities continue to grapple with how to handle these protests, it is crucial that we also continue to raise awareness and call for an end to the violence.
In the words of Selina Al-Shihabi, a Georgetown University sophomore who was taking part in a protest at George Washington, “Cease-fires are temporary. There can be a cease-fire, but the U.S. government will continue to arm the Israeli military.
