Columbia University cancels commencement after weeks of pro-Palestinian protests – Winnipeg Free Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University canceled a grand opening ceremony at the university on Monday after weeks of Palestinian protests rocked its campus and others across the U.S., but said students could still celebrate at several smaller gatherings. school ceremonies this week and next week.

The decision comes as universities across the country grapple with how to handle enrollment in 2020 for students whose high school graduations have been derailed by COVID-19. Emory University, another campus rocked by protests, announced on Monday that it would move its commencement from its Atlanta campus. to the suburban arena. Others, including the University of Michigan, Indiana University and Northeastern, completed the ceremonies with little interruption.

Columbia's decision to cancel its main ceremonies scheduled for May 15 spares its president, Minoushe Shafiq, from speaking on the same part of campus where police dismantled a protest camp last week. The Ivy League school in upper Manhattan said it made the decision after discussions with students.

“Our students have emphasized that these small, school-based celebrations are important to them and their families,” officials said.

Most of the ceremonies planned for the South Lawn of the main campus, where the camps were cleared last week, will be held at the Columbia Sports Complex, 5 miles (8 kilometers) to the north, officials said.

Speakers at some of Columbia's yet-to-be-scheduled graduation ceremonies include Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijams and Dr. Monica Bertagnoli, director of the National Institutes of Health.

Columbia refused private lessons. In recent weeks, more than 200 Palestinian demonstrators who camped out in Colombia's Green Square or occupied an educational building have been arrested.

Similar camps have sprung up elsewhere as universities struggle with where to draw the line between allowing free speech while maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.

The University of Southern California has previously canceled a major graduation ceremony. Students left the USC camp on Sunday after being surrounded by police and threatened with arrest.

Other universities held graduation ceremonies with heightened security. The University of Michigan's ceremony was interrupted by several chants on Saturday. In Boston on Sunday, some students raised small flags of Palestine or Israel at Northeastern University's commencement at Fenway Park.

Emory's ceremonies, scheduled for May 13, will be held at the GasSouth Arena and Convocation Center in Duluth, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of the university's Atlanta campus, President Gregory Fenves said in an open letter.

“Please know that this decision was not taken lightly,” Fenves wrote. “This was done in close consultation with the Emory Police Department, security consultants and other agencies — each of whom advised against initiating events on our campuses.”

The university, which has 16,000 students, is one of many that has seen several protests over the conflict, which began on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants stormed southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages. Student protesters are calling on their schools to divest from companies that work with Israel or otherwise contribute to war efforts.

Israel, which has vowed to destroy Hamas, has launched an attack on Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes destroyed the enclave and displaced most of its inhabitants.

Hamas announced on Monday that it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal, but Israel said the deal did not meet its “core demands” and continued to attack the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

“The ceasefire is temporary,” said Selina Al-Shihabi, a sophomore at Georgetown University who attended the protest in George Washington. “There may be a ceasefire, but the US government will continue arming the Israeli army. We plan to be here until the university disbands or they drag us out of here.”

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, police restricted access to a pro-Palestinian encampment, but protesters broke through the fence and strapped weapons around the area, where more than a dozen tents still stood. They said, “MIT, get in line. We are all with Palestine.” Other protesters sat on Massachusetts Avenue, blocking evening rush hour traffic on the major thoroughfare.

At the University of California, San Diego, police cleared the camp and arrested more than 64 people, including 40 students.

The University of California, Los Angeles has held all classes online for the week due to disruptions following last week's campus demolition. University police reported 44 arrests but did not have specifics, UCLA spokesman Eddie North-Hager told The Associated Press in an email.

Schools use a variety of tactics, from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action, to encourage protesters to break camp or move to areas of campus where demonstrations are less frequent.

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago said in a Facebook post on Sunday that it was offering protesters “amnesty from academic sanctions and trespassing charges” if they moved.

“Many of the protesters voluntarily left the premises after police reported trespassing and arrests,” the school said. “The rest were arrested after several warnings to leave, including those we identified as SAIC students.”

A group of faculty and staff at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has asked the administration to grant amnesty to students arrested and suspended during recent protests. UNC Palestine Justice faculty and staff said they will be sending a letter to the media on behalf of more than 500 faculty members supporting the student activists.

Other universities took a different approach.

Harvard University Interim President Alan Garber has warned students that those who attend a pro-Palestinian camp at Harvard Yard may be subject to an “involuntary dismissal.” That means they're not allowed on campus, lose their student housing and can't take exams, Garber said.

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Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta, Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Steve LeBlanc in Cambridge, Massachusetts contributed to this report.

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This story has been changed to Minuch, representing Columbia University's president's desire to change his name.