Hundreds walk out of Harvard commencement after 13 students barred from ceremony

Hundreds of students walked out of Harvard’s graduation ceremony in protest on Thursday, May 23, with chants of “free Palestine” and “let them walk.”  The latter chant was about 13 students the school barred from receiving their degrees at commencement due to their conduct at an on-campus protest encampment.

In a statement, Harvard said the students were not in good standing and violated the university’s policies despite a recommendation from faculty members that the students be able to receive their diplomas.

“Each of these students has been found by the College’s Administrative Board—the body established by the FAS faculty to investigate and adjudicate disciplinary matters—to have violated the University’s policies by their conduct during their participation in the recent encampment in Harvard Yard,” the Conferral of Degrees statement said.

“We respect each faculty’s responsibility to determine appropriate discipline for its students. Monday’s faculty vote did not, however, revisit these disciplinary rulings, did not purport to engage in the individualized assessment of each case that would ordinarily be required to do so, and, most importantly, did not claim to restore the students to good standing.”

Student speaker Shruthi Kumar spoke of the 13 students to cheers and applause.

“As I stand before you today, I must take a moment to recognize my peers, the 13 undergraduates in the class of 2024 who will not graduate today,” Kumar said. “I am deeply disappointed by the intolerance for freedom of speech and the right to civil disobedience on campus.”

The pro-Palestinian encampment, which lasted three weeks at Harvard, aimed to get the school to divest from companies that support Israel and the war in Gaza. Harvard agreed it would discuss the protester’s demands.

Also on Thursday, the presidents of Northwestern and Rutgers universities testified in front of a House committee where they defended their decisions to negotiate with protesters to end encampments on their campus. 

The chancellor of UCLA also took questions about the delay in sending in police to respond to violence between sparring protesting groups on the California campus.