Columbia University canceled its main commencement ceremony following weeks of anti-Israel activism and strife, prompting accusations that the Ivy League school has surrendered to protesters.
The university said Monday that it would center its graduation celebration on the small-school graduations and Class Days scheduled to take place from May 10-16, nixing the university-wide graduation ceremony that had been slated for May 15.
“Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families,” the university said. “They are eager to cross the stage to applause and family pride and hear from their school’s invited guest speakers. As a result, we will focus our resources on those school ceremonies and on keeping them safe, respectful, and running smoothly.”
The university acknowledged that the “past few weeks have been incredibly difficult for our community,” referring to last week’s arrests of 119 protesters, 32 of whom had no affiliation to the campus, who set up a sprawling encampment and took over Hamilton Hall.
Columbia’s decision to hold nearly 30 smaller graduation ceremonies at a host of venues has strategic benefits.
It removes the primary target for pro-Palestinian protesters intent on disrupting graduation before a large-scale audience, as they did last weekend at the University of Michigan’s spring commencement ceremony.
At the same time, the cancellation was seen by critics as the latest capitulation by Columbia President Minouche Shafik, who has been blasted from both the left and right for her handling of the protest crisis.
Former President Donald Trump told reporters that “Columbia just canceled their commencement. That shouldn’t happen.”
He also cited a Politico report showing that some of President Biden’s biggest donors are affiliated with major philanthropic organizations funding anti-Israel groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace.
“I hope you’re listening, Israel. I hope you’re getting smart,” Mr. Trump said outside the Manhattan courtroom where his hush-money trial is taking place. “That’s where the money’s coming from.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, posted on X that the “[p]ro-Hamas lunatics forcing Columbia to cancel graduation is a disgrace and an insult to their fellow graduates and their families.”
Columbia previously had moved to mainly remote hybrid learning and shut down its main campus to all but residential students and essential staff as it struggled to restore order on campus.
The conservative Media Research Center posted on X that Columbia “lets the terrorists win and cancels their main graduation ceremony due to pro-Hamas agitators.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said that Columbia administrators “have displayed a shocking unwillingness to control their campus.”
“They’ve allowed outside agitators and terrorist-sympathizing students and faculty to rewrite campus rules and spew vile, anti-Jewish aggression,” Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said in a statement. “Now, thousands of students who’ve worked hard to achieve their degrees will not get the recognition they deserve.”
He reiterated his call for Ms. Shafik to resign or be removed by the Columbia Board of Trustees: “It is abundantly clear that President Shafik would rather cede control to Hamas supporters than restore order.”
Ms. Shafik had repeatedly urged protesters to disband by citing the threat to graduation, noting that many in the Class of 2024 had their high-school commencement ceremonies canceled due to the pandemic.
This is awful. It represents a leadership failure by the “grown ups” who run Columbia.
It’s a shame that fewer than 1% of the students can do this to 99% of their fellow students.
The leaders of Columbia brought this on themselves through weakness.
https://t.co/87It4HE0P0
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) May 6, 2024
Columbia said it decided to abandon the main ceremony after speaking with student leaders about their graduation preferences.
“Based on their feedback, we have decided to make the centerpiece of our Commencement activities our Class Days and school-level ceremonies, where students are honored individually alongside their peers, rather than the University-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15,” the statement said.
Columbia isn’t the first major university to cancel its large-scale graduation in response to protest threats.
The University of Southern California pulled the plug on its “main stage” ceremony slated for May 10 over pro-Palestinian unrest, that it would host a “Trojan Family Graduate Celebration” at the Los Angeles Coliseum on that date instead.
Columbia also held out the possibility of holding “a festive event on May 15 to take the place of the large, formal ceremony.”
“We are eager to all come together for our graduates and celebrate our fellow Columbians as they, and we, look ahead to the future,” the university said.
Los Angeles police cleared Sunday the USC encampment in Alumni Park at the heart of the campus amid rising concerns about safety and outside agitators, but made no arrests, according to USC President Carol Folt.