Graduation ceremonies will take place this weekend at colleges and universities across the United States, following weeks of protests in which more than 2,100 people were arrested on more than 40 campuses in at least 25 states.
The wave of pro-Palestinian protests and the concern of university authorities about security have already begun to affect graduation ceremonies. In Michigan, protesters disrupted the graduation ceremony at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance on Friday, according to video from a reporter from the CNN affiliate Richmond Times-Dispatch.
And the president of the University of Vermont announced Friday that Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will no longer deliver the commencement address. Some of the campus protesters had called on the university to rescind her invitation to Thomas-Greenfield.
All of this comes weeks after the University of Southern California decided to rescind its invitation to Asna Tabassum to speak at its ceremony. USC now plans to hold a “graduation family party” on May 9, the school announced Friday, just over a week after canceling the main graduation ceremony.
These are the latest headlines:
New York News
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik said in a video message Friday that the protesters who occupied Hamilton Hall “crossed a new line.” Columbia Administrator Jeh Johnson expressed his support for Shafik’s message in which he called the last two weeks on campus “among the most difficult in Columbia’s history.”
The New York Police Department detained 43 people at The New School, a private university in the city, after the school requested help breaking up illegal encampments, according to an NYPD spokesperson who spoke to WABC on Friday. , CNN affiliate.
Additionally, The New School moved to online teaching on Friday.
The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Friday denounced the school administrations of New York University, The New School, the University of Buffalo and Stony Brook University for the arrests of student protesters.
Likewise, of the 44 people detained at Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall this week, 13 were adults not affiliated with Columbia, six were students affiliated with other educational institutions, 23 were Columbia students and two were school employees, it was reported. the university in a breakdown.
California News
USC began a disciplinary process for campus members “who have violated both our policies and the law,” President Carol L. Folt said Friday. The university will take any other measures necessary to maintain campus security and comply with legal obligations, Folt said.
Stanford University authorities have sent the FBI a photo of a person in a campus camp who they say appears to be wearing a headband similar to those worn by Hamas members, according to this report. week the university authorities.
The University of California, Riverside administration and protesters reached an agreement Friday on transparency of investments and study abroad programs. The protest camp on campus was to disband by midnight Friday.
Universities around the world
Students at Trinity College Dublin set up camp on campus on Friday night as part of a pro-Palestinian protest. This comes shortly after university authorities fined the student union $230,000 (214,000 euros) for unrest caused by earlier pro-Palestinian protests.
