CAMBRIDGE
\nA group of graduates walked out of the Harvard commencement chanting \u201cFree, Free Palestine\u201d after weeks of protests on campus.
\nSchool officials announced Wednesday, the day before Thursday\u2019s graduation, that 13 Harvard students who participated in a protest encampment would not be able to receive degrees alongside their classmates.
\nSome students chanted \u201cLet them walk, let them walk walk,\u201d during Thursday\u2019s commencement, referring to allowing those 13 students to get their degrees along with fellow graduates.
\nHarvard University held its commencement address Thursday following a weekslong pro-Palestinian encampment that shut down Harvard Yard to all but those with university ties and roiled tensions on the campus.
\nThose tensions were ticked up a notch on Wednesday when school officials announced that 13 Harvard students who participated in the encampment won\u2019t be able to receive degrees alongside their classmates. Some students chanted \u201cLet them walk, Let them walk,\u201d during commencement.
\nStudent speaker Shruthi Kumar said \u201cthis semester our freedom of speech and our expressions of solidarity became punishable,\u201d she said to cheers and applause.
\nShe said she had to take a moment to recognize \u201cthe 13 undergraduates in the class of 2024 who will not graduate today,\u201d Kumar said to prolonged cheers and clapping. \u201cI am deeply disappointed by the intolerance for freedom of speech and the right to civil disobedience on campus.\u201d
\nOver 1,500 students had petitioned, and nearly 500 staff and faculty had spoken up, all over the sanctions, she said.
\n\u201cThis is about civil rights and upholding democratic principals,\u201d she said. \u201cThe students had spoken. The faculty had spoken. Harvard do you hear us?\u201d
\nThose in the encampment had called for a ceasefire in Gaza and for Harvard to divest from companies that support the war.
\nAlso on Thursday, the leaders of Northwestern University and Rutgers University are expected to testify at a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing about concessions they gave to pro-Palestinian protesters to end demonstrations on their campus. The chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, also was scheduled to appear at the latest in a series of hearings looking into how colleges have responded to the protests and allegations of antisemitism
\nThe decision by the school\u2019s top governing board follows a recommendation Monday by faculty members to allow the 13 to receive their degrees despite their participation in the encampment.
\nHarvard\u2019s governing board, the Harvard Corporation, however said that each of 13 have been found to have violated the university\u2019s policies by their conduct during the encampment protest.
\n\u201cIn coming to this determination, we note that the express provisions of the Harvard College Student Handbook state that students who are not in good standing are not eligible for degrees,\u201d the corporation said in a written statement.
\nThe statement left open the possibility of an appeals process saying the corporation understands \u201cthat the inability to graduate is consequential for students and their families\u201d and supports the Faculty of Arts and Sciences\u2019 intention to provide an expedited review of requests for appeal.
\n\u201cWe care deeply about every member of our community \u2014 students, faculty, staff, researchers, and alumni \u2014 and we have chosen a path forward that accords with our responsibilities and reaffirms a process for our students to receive prompt and fair review,\u201d the statement added.
\nSupporters of the students said the decision not to allow them to receive degrees at commencement violated a May 14 agreement between interim President Alan Garber and the Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine coalition that would have allowed the students to graduate.
\nProtesters against the war between Israel and Hamas voluntarily dismantled their tents after they said university officials agreed to discuss their questions about the endowment, bringing a peaceful end to the kinds of demonstrations that were broken up by police on other campuses.
\nThe group issued a statement late Wednesday saying the decision jeopardizes the post-graduation lives of the 13 students.
\n\u201cBy rejecting a democratic faculty vote, the Corporation has proved itself to be a wholly illegitimate body, and Garber an illegitimate president, accountable to no one at the university,\u201d the group said.
\n\u201cToday\u2019s actions have plunged the university even further into a crisis of legitimacy and governance, which will have major repercussions for Harvard in the coming months and years,\u201d the group said,
\nThere was a noticeable presence of police officers around the campus Thursday mixing with soon-to-be-graduates, their family members and sidewalk flower sellers.
\nA small plane circled above trailing an Israeli and US flag. A truck was parked outside the campus with an electronic billboard with the names and images of some of the pro-Palestinian protesters under the banner \u201cHarvard\u2019s Leading Antisemites.\u201d
\nAt Drexel University in Philadelphia, protesters packed up their belongings and left a pro-Palestinian encampment Thursday after the school announced a decision to have police clear the encampment. A wave of pro-Palestinian tent encampments on campuses has led to over 3,000 arrests nationwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CAMBRIDGE A group of graduates walked out of the Harvard commencement chanting \u201cFree, Free Palestine\u201d after weeks of protests on campus. School officials announced Wednesday, the day before Thursday\u2019s graduation, that 13 Harvard students who participated in a protest encampment would not be able to receive degrees alongside their classmates. Some students chanted \u201cLet them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-408958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n