Columbia University cancels main commencement after protests that roiled campus for weeks
NEW YORK — Columbia University is canceling its large university-wide commencement ceremony amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protests, but will hold smaller school ceremonies this week and next, the university announced Monday.
“Based on feedback from our students, we have decided to focus on our Class Days and school-level graduation ceremonies, where students are honored individually alongside their peers, and to forego the university-wide ceremony scheduled for May 15 .” Officials at the Ivy League school in Upper Manhattan said in a statement.
The school noted that the past few weeks have been “incredibly difficult” for the community and said in its announcement that it made the decision after conversations with students. “Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale school celebrations are the most meaningful for them and their families,” officials said. “They are eager to cross the stage to applause and family pride and listen to their school’s invited guest speakers.”
Most of the ceremonies planned for the south lawn of the main campus, where encampments were demolished last week, will take place about five miles north at the Columbia Sports Complex, officials said.
Columbia had already canceled in-person classes. More than a hundred pro-Palestinian protesters camped on Columbia’s green were arrested last month, and similar encampments sprang up at colleges across the country as schools grappled with where to draw the line between allowing of free speech and maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.
The University of Southern California previously canceled its main graduation ceremony, while allowing other commencement activities to proceed. Students left their camp at USC early Sunday after being surrounded by police and threatened with arrest.
The protests stem from the conflict that began on October 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages. Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled area, about two-thirds of whom were women and children, according to the Health Ministry. Israeli attacks have destroyed the enclave and displaced most of its residents.