This had been the celebration time many college graduates in the class of 2024 had looked forward to — a formal commencement.
Remember, this is the COVID high school class, which saw most in-person graduations shuttered out of an overwhelming concern for safety.
“I was a 2020 graduate in high school,” says Isa Johnson, a senior at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Because of the pandemic, her high school graduation couldn’t happen in person.
Naturally, Johnson was overjoyed to be a part of a traditional graduation ceremony this spring. But protests on USC’s campus have dampened her excitement. And her campus isn’t the only one.
In response to Jewish student organizations at USC brought about concerns about valedictorian Asna Tabassum’s past social media activity, the school scratched Tabassum’s speech from commencement. Other students rushed to her defense and marched on campus in support. Eventually, the administration canceled the school’s main commencement, citing safety concerns.
“We were finally going to be able to have… graduation,” Johnson says, “and then within a whole week it was all taken away.”
After Oct. 7 – when Hamas attacked Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking at least 240 hostages – Israel retaliated by bombarding Gaza. That war has killed at least 34,622 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
In mid-April, college students on campuses around the country began protesting in support of Palestinians. Students are calling for their schools to divest from companies that do business with Israel, among other demands. The movement has led to the arrest of at least 2,500 protestors, according to the Associated Press.
Students are organizing in highly visible spaces on campus, like the main quad of a school, and they’re often opting for sit-ins rather than passing protests with a scheduled beginning and end. At several schools, students have formed encampments, pitching tents and living outside for days at a time.
At the same time, campuses are preparing to receive families eager to celebrate graduation.
Across the country, protests on college campuses are running up against graduation season. Over the weekend, ceremonies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Indiana University Bloomington were marked by protests. Graduating students in Michigan interrupted the ceremony with chants, Palestinian flags and banners. At Indiana’s commencement, a plane with a banner that read “LET GAZA LIVE!” flew overhead and a group of graduating students staged a walkout.
Schools with upcoming ceremonies are announcing extra safety precautions and venue changes. On Monday, following weeks of campus tensions, Columbia University in New York City joined USC in canceling its main ceremony. It’s also moving smaller, school-based ceremonies off the main lawn, where protestors have been gathering, and into an outdoor sports venue. Also on Monday, Emory University, in Atlanta, said it was moving the ceremony to a venue in Duluth, Ga., over 20 miles away.
Johnson, at USC, says she understands why students feel the need to protest, but a lot of her classmates are upset about how their graduation has been affected.
“They’re kind of just like, you know, ‘I want a normal graduation.’ I just wish things could be normal on campus. The atmosphere on campus isn’t what it usually is,” she says. “I think it makes a lot of people uncomfortable.”
Information in this report was obtained from NPR