A Proposal for a New College-Specific Event for Graduation: Official Announcements from Columbia University and Emory University

The school’s expression- related protocols for graduation are similar to the events held on campus, according to an FAQ on the website.

Gas South District venues have various requirements for security screening, event safety, and guest conduct, according to its website, including prohibiting backpacks and “signs on sticks or oversized signs (no larger than 8 1/2″ x 11″).”

The protest drew a large police presence over several days, but attempts by university police to break up the encampment and arrest participants were unsuccessful, in part because faculty members physically blocked their path.

The faculty of science and arts have passed no confidence votes in Fenves, while undergraduate students are holding another vote on the same day.

A week of protests against the Israel-Hamas war and a controversial public safety training center led to the announcement.

Columbia University will focus on school-specific celebrations instead of its main ceremony. And Emory University announced it will relocate graduation from its Atlanta campus to a complex in Duluth, Ga., over 20 miles away.

Students will not be honored at a universitywide ceremony on May 15 because of feedback from students, and instead will be honored at school-level ceremonies, the institution said on Monday.

“Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families,” the announcement from Columbia reads. They are very eager to cross the stage and hear their school’s guest speakers. As a result, we will focus our resources on those school ceremonies and on keeping them safe, respectful, and running smoothly.”

Announcement of the Illinois-Nordst-West Antiwar Camp Graduation Ceremony on April 25 During the Battle of Deering Meadow

Protesters set up an encampment on Deering Meadow on Northwestern’s Evanston, Ill., campus on April 25, to show support for Palestinians and urge the university to disclose — and cut — its financial ties to Israeli companies they say are complicit in the war in Gaza.

The ceremonies will be held at the Baker Athletics Complex. The events will be held in May with tickets required. On the morning of May 14, Columbia College will host its ceremony, followed by the affiliated partner college of the same name.

She wrote to the NYPD as police moved to remove pro-Palestinian protesters from a building on a campus. The first time that month was when the city police were called in to break up protests.

The antiwar camp was cleared by police on the day it was set up. Students continued to protest, including reestablishing an encampment on April 29 as they called on the school to divest from weapons manufacturers and companies tied to the Israeli military, and to end study abroad programs in Israel.

On April 29, after negotiations stalled, Columbia began suspending students who did not heed its warning to leave the encampment by 2 p.m. The next day, dozens of students began occupying Hamilton Hall — in an echo of the school’s 1968 protests — and barricading themselves inside.

While facing criticism and calls to resign from both sides of the aisle, she maintains the backing of Columbia’s board of trustees.

Other schools are still going ahead with their graduation even though some are going to protest during the day. Over the weekend, students and faculty at Indiana University held an alternate graduation ceremony, while dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters waving flags and banners briefly disrupted the University of Michigan’s graduation.

The graduation ceremony for each of its nine schools will not be the same as before. Graduation events will begin on May 10, according to a revised calendar.

The Emory Campus Campus Discriminates Against the Israel-Hamas War: Resolving the Student-Administration Contagion and Enforcing Human Rights

The Gas South District includes an arena and a convention center. It is about 20 miles northeast of Emory’s Atlanta campus and 30 miles northwest of its Oxford campus, according to the university.

He added that the decision was not taken lightly. “It was made in close consultation with the Emory Police Department, security advisors, and other agencies — each of which advised against holding Commencement events on our campuses.”

He also congratulated the “like no other” Class of 2024, noting the pandemic interrupted may of their high school graduations and forced them to begin college online.

As the latest wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at U.S. colleges stretches into a third week, some campuses are seeing rising tensions while others have gone relatively quiet.

Protesters at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus reached an agreement with the administration on Thursday, capping off a tumultuous few weeks.

Protesters’ demands vary by school, though they generally call for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, disclosures of institutional investments and divestment from companies with ties to Israel or that otherwise profit from its military operation in Gaza.

Northwestern and Brown were the first schools to announce agreements last week, followed quickly by others including Rutgers, Johns Hopkins, the University of Minnesota and the University of California, Riverside.

Columbia University and UCLA administrators called in police to take down student campsites. But others managed to clear their lawns of tents without police intervention — through negotiations with student organizers.

The agreement was forged by students, faculty and administration working together to prevent violence from occurring here at the college, according to a note from the university.

Some of the schools did not commit to removing themselves from Israel. But they say they will provide more transparency around their endowments and limit disciplinary action against students, among other commitments. Several also pledged scholarships or aid for Palestinian students and improved space for Muslim students on campus.

Activists are still upset about the terms of their deals, but many are celebrating the small steps that have been taken in the fight to get schools to rid themselves of Israel.

“When it comes to the actual momentum that this agreement gives us, I cannot emphasize enough how huge it is,” said Lucas, a Northwestern student who asked to only use his first name because of concerns about online harassment.

That’s the case at Wesleyan University, where President Michael Roth — who previously said the school’s encampment could continue as long as it remained peaceful — warned Thursday that vandalism and reports of harassment could result in legal and disciplinary consequences.

We don’t want to move in this direction unless necessary and much prefer to talk with protesters about what we can do as an institution to address the War in Gaza,” he wrote. The recent agreements at Brown University might show the way.

There are no sound amplification devices, tents, or community members allowed to demonstrate on Deering Meadow through June 1. The Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility will be made up of students, faculty and staff this fall.

It will also fund the cost of attendance for five Palestinian undergraduates (and fundraise for more), provide “immediate temporary space for MENA/Muslim students” and engage students in a process to ensure additional support for Jewish and Muslim community members.

Some Jewish groups claim that the terms of the agreement leave Jewish students feeling unsafe. Northwestern is now facing two lawsuits, one from students and one from an outside anti-affirmative affirmative action group.

Schill’s not consulting the President’s Advisory Committee on preventing antisemitism and hate before agreeing on the agreement caused seven members to step down.

A coalition of outside groups issued a statement calling for Schill’s resignation after they heard about the “reprehensible and dangerous agreement.” The American Jewish Committee accused the school of “succumbing to the demands of a mob that has intimidated Jewish students, preached antisemitic speech, and whose members have celebrated Hamas terrorists.”

Schill, who is Jewish, defended the agreement in an April 30 video in which he acknowledged and condemned incidents of antisemitism at the encampment, including a poster showing him with devil horns, an antisemitic trope. And he told Here & Now that the ban on tents and megaphones aims to make Jewish students feel more safe on campus.

“I do take issue with calling our students a mob,” he added. “They’re students, they’re young, they’re sometimes naïve, they’re learning — and so the best way for us to engage and achieve our educational mission is for us to engage in dialogue with them.”

Several student groups involved in the protest have issued statements of support for the agreement and pledged to keep fighting for a ceasefire and divestment.

In fact, some have already followed up on one promise of the agreement: They’ve emailed Northwestern requesting more information about its investments in companies with ties to Israel, and are expecting a response within 30 days.

On April 30, President Paxson and the administration reached an agreement with student protesters who had been on the school’s Providence, Rhode Island, campus for six days.

“Students agreed to end the encampment and refrain from further actions that would violate Brown’s conduct code through the end of the academic year, which includes Commencement and Reunion Weekend,” she said.

Students with the Brown Divest Coalition had two central demands for the university, Isabella Garo told All Things Considered. She was one of the six students involved in negotiations with two administrators.

The university corporation was to be presented with a long-tabled 2020 advisory committee report, which recommended that the university vote toDivest from Israeli Occupation. The second was to drop charges against the 41 students arrested at a December sit-in.

Students left their camp by 5 pm that day. In exchange, the Corporation of Brown University will invite five students to speak with a group of five of its members — including the chair of the investment committee — about the 2020 report during its May meeting.

The May agenda does not include any additions to the topic of divestment. Paxson will ask the advisory committee to give her some advice onDivestment and put it on the agenda for the corporation’s October meeting.

In the announcement, Paxson said that he felt strongly that a vote in October would bring clarity to an issue that is important to the community.

She said some people are just relieved that the campaign is moving forward. Some people are relieved that the protests are over, because they never liked them. Some people wish to see the sale of their assets.

She said that the student activists will organize in the lead-up to the October corporation. She doesn’t know yet what that will look like — and, as a graduating senior, won’t be on campus in the fall to help.

After a rally that morning forced the school to postpone more than two dozen final exams, it gave protesters a 4 p.m. deadline to take down their encampment — which they set up on April 29 — or else be arrested.

But within an hour of the deadline, the administration offered up a revised proposal — and student organizers accepted it. The tents were to be clear just in time.

The End of Rutgers: What We Can Learn From 4 Schools That Have Reached Agreements with Gaza Protesters” Chancellor Francine Conway

“Such decisions fall outside of our administrative scope,” wrote Chancellor Francine Conway. “However, following our established university policies, the divestment request is under review.”

Rutgers did agree to accept 10 displaced Palestinian students on scholarship, develop a plan for an Arab Cultural Center on campus, explore scholarly exchanges with a university in Ramallah and consider creating a Department of Middle East Studies, to name a few.

The New Jersey regional director of the American Jewish Committee said the agreement was “short-sighted” and a “capitulation.”

But the Endowment Justice Collective said in an Instagram statement that it was proud of what it had achieved — without student arrests or suspensions — and determined to keep working towards its divestment goals.

“Our decision to end our encampment without achieving these demands reflects our strategic logic regarding building power on campus by laying structural groundwork to not only grow our ranks but shift the political climate across Rutgers,” they wrote.

University officials announced that day that some campus buildings would remain closed amidst protests. A dozen buildings remained closed the following day, as university officials offered to meet with leaders of student groups involved in the protests, MPR News reported.

Organizers met with administrators on the last day of final exams and they described the conversation as productive. They had reached an agreement before the night ended.

campus buildings would reopen at noon, student organizers wouldn’t disrupt finals or commencements, and representatives would have an opportunity to speak to the Board of regents at its May 10 meeting, as announced by Interim President Jeff Ettinger the following day.

Among them: The administration said it would consider setting up program affiliations with Palestinian universities and make a good faith effort to provide information about the university’s holding in public companies by May 7, to be supplemented by May 17.

Source: What we can learn from 4 schools that have reached agreements with Gaza protesters

Progress Report of the UMN Divest Coalition on Social Media: ‘Two Minutes of One Minute’ and Two Minutes’

The meeting was scheduled for 30 minutes, but participants talked for more than 90 minutes and then met twice more to discuss the proposed agreements.

We regret that these meetings did not happen sooner, and have committed to regular meetings moving forward to discuss this coalition’s concerns,” he said.

He said he is heartened by the initial progress but there is more work to be done. The organizers of the UMN Divest Coalition made a similar vow on their social media accounts.