Columbia Cancels Campus-Wide Commencement

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Facts

• Columbia University has announced that it will cancel its university-wide commencement ceremony scheduled for May 15 due to the ongoing pro-Palestinian protests.¹
• The university will instead hold various smaller-scale celebrations for the institution's individual schools. Many of the smaller celebrations will take place at the university's Baker Athletics Complex, far from the protests taking place on the main campus.²
• This follows weeks of pro-Palestinian protests on campus. In the demonstrations, which started on April 17, students have demanded a cease-fire in Gaza and called for the university to divest from some companies with interests in Israel.¹
• On April 30, the New York Police Department clashed with protesters while police attempted to clear a protest encampment at Hamilton Hall, resulting in over 100 arrests. Columbia asked law enforcement to stay on campus until at least May 17.³
• The school said that the decision to cancel the main commencement ceremony was made after discussions with student leaders. Security considerations were cited as the main reason for the cancelation.³
• The decision also follows an earlier decision by the University of Southern California to cancel its main commencement ceremony while allowing smaller ceremonies to continue due to the ongoing demonstrations.⁴

Sources: ¹Forbes, ²www.ft.com, ³NBC and ⁴Associated Press.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Associated Press. It would be logistically difficult to organize a large-scale event like a campus-wide commencement ceremony amidst the protests happening at Columbia University — especially since some of these protests have turned violent. Smaller-scale individual ceremonies that will take place off the main campus are a fair trade-off that will still allow students to be celebrated for their accomplishments while also accommodating security concerns.
• Conservative narrative, as provided by FOX News. A small minority of students have ruined it for everyone else. It's a shame that Columbia has canceled its campus-wide commencement ceremony. Many of these students have been looking forward to this day for years, especially since the majority of them were unable to have in-person graduation ceremonies during high school because of the COVID pandemic. Colleges must regain order on their campuses and not allow this anarchy to continue any longer.
• Progressive narrative, as provided by Democracy Now. The student protests are on the right side of history. This is a social movement pushing back against the atrocities in Gaza, urging divestment from companies enabling Israel's ruthless operations against Palestine, and the resulting crackdown by militarized police. This is not just a US issue anymore — this is now becoming an international movement of solidarity.

Predictions