Students 'angry' as Columbia axes main commencement | REUTERS

a day after Columbia University said it would cancel next week's commencement due to protests a crowd was again massing on school grounds this time it was a pro-israel demonstration around 200 people rallied on Tuesday in support of Jewish Israeli American and Israeli students they say face harassment intimidation or violence amid ongoing Pro Palestinian protests on New York area campuses students on campuses across the US have protested for weeks calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from Israel and some universities including Colombia called in Riot police with batons and flashbang grenades to disperse and arrest them the school said it canell its graduation ceremony because there'd be insurmountable security concerns with over 50,000 attendees and said it was deeply disappointed but that it would still hold smaller school-based ceremonies at another complex 5 m off campus one student told Reuters this was the second time he'd been robbed of an in-person graduation I think it's it's deeply saddening and honestly uh I'm very angry um you know I'm I'm a senior and for my high school graduation that was canceled too because of Co so now you come to this this next uh milestone in your life and uh you don't get to celebrate that either so it's just kind of back to back it's a really frustrating and uh saddening that I haven't been able to experience a full graduation normally others were unconvinced with the school's rationale for cancelling the encampment has been cleared for a significant amount of time now and they've made no moves on uh increasing the amount of preparations they had on campus so I think we all kind of saw it coming but it's just insane to really see it happen and just shows how bad faith their negoti negotiations have been the whole time other universities have struggled to contain disruption to their commencements over 300 University of Michigan faculty staff and alumni signed a protest letter against their school requiring commencement volunteers to undergo training to stop hecklers some staff bked at being asked to quell quote people trying to express Free Speech University of Southern California called off its mainstage graduation last week it came after outcry over for a decision in mid April to scrub the valedictorian speech by Muslim student azat tabasum senior leadership said that was due to safety concerns and passions around the war in Gaza

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Length: 2min 44sec (164 seconds)

Published: Tue May 07 2024