Columbia University cancels main graduation ceremony due to Gaza protests

“Based on feedback from our students, we have decided to focus attention on our Class Days and school-level graduation ceremonies, where students are honored individually alongside their peers, and to forego the university-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15,” officials at the Ivy League school in upper Manhattan said in a statement.

The protests at Columbia, which drew international 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.

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.

Read moreColumbia University president in hot water over handling of pro-Palestinian protests

Noting that the past few weeks have been “incredibly difficult” for the community, the school said in its announcement that it made the decision after discussions with students.

“Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families,” the statement noted. “They are eager to cross the stage to applause and family pride and hear from their school’s invited guest speakers.”

Ceremonies scrapped in California universities

Most of the ceremonies that had been scheduled for the south lawn of the main campus, where encampments were taken down last week, will take place about 5 miles north at Columbia’s sports complex, officials said.

Columbia had already cancelled in-person classes. 

The University of Southern California (USC) earlier cancelled its main graduation ceremony while allowing other commencement activities to continue. Students abandoned their camp at USC early Sunday after being surrounded by police and threatened with arrest.

At the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) where pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protesters clashed last week and where police arrested more than 200 people, Chancellor Gene Block on Sunday announced a new Office of Campus Safety.

A former Sacramento, California, police chief, Rick Braziel, will lead the office and report directly to Block.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)