NEW YORK — Columbia University announced plans Monday to shift graduation celebrations to a stadium off campus — a blow to the school, which had cited commencement in its argument against pro-Palestinian protesters who had taken over the campus.
“These past few weeks have been incredibly difficult for our community,” the university wrote in an email to students. “Just as we are focused on making our graduation experience truly special, we continue to solicit student feedback and are looking at the possibility of a festive event on May 15 to take the place of the large, formal ceremony.”
Columbia’s annual commencement ceremony — slated for May 15 — brings together tens of thousands of graduates and their guests from all its affiliated schools. It is typically held on the university’s main campus, the area where the Gaza Solidarity Encampment stood before the New York Police Department sweep last week that yielded 119 arrests.
The pro-Palestinian protesters behind the encampment used commencement as leverage to reach a deal at the negotiating table with the university, while Columbia President Minouche Shafik doubled down.
"We want to reassure our community who are trying to make plans that we will indeed hold a commencement,” Shafik wrote in a universitywide email April 29, the day before she authorized the second NYPD sweep of demonstrators in two weeks and asked police to remain on campus past graduation.
“We also do not want to deprive thousands of students and their families and friends of a graduation celebration,” she added. “Please recall that many in this graduating class did not get a celebration when graduating from high school because of the pandemic, and many of them are the first in their families to earn a university degree. We owe it to all of our graduates and their loved ones to honor their achievement."
Shafik planned to speak at the commencement ceremony, her first as president. Student leaders who met with Shafik told her that was a bad idea. At this point it's unclear whether she will.
“We were like, ‘We don’t want you there, and if you are there, people will use that as an opportunity to try to get you to listen to them, which is what these protests have always been,’” said Teji Vijayakumar, a graduating senior and the Columbia College student body president.
The school’s class days — smaller ceremonies where graduates’ names are read individually as they cross the stage — will be relocated to the school’s athletic complex at the upper tip of Manhattan.
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