The pro-Palestinian protests that caused unrest on college campuses across the country for weeks are fizzling out leading up to graduation exercises, but some ceremonies were still marred by agitators.
In the past two weeks, universities finally began to dismantle the unlawful encampments that had been spreading across their campuses, racing against the clock to clear them before families started showing up to celebrate graduation. While many of the protests dwindled, some ceremonies were still disrupted by small organized walk-outs, and at least one school suffered a larger-scale demonstration.
The protests, which largely began with Columbia University’s encampment in mid-April and spread to other schools, have resulted in the arrests of roughly 2,900 students and other agitators at 57 colleges or universities across the country. Protesters were calling for their respective schools to divest from Israel-related entities and cut ties with Israeli universities.
While some schools have had to alter or cancel their graduation ceremonies, most of the commencement plans have remained in place after schools cleared the protests. Administrators at many schools have had to implement measures at ceremonies such as increasing security, setting up free speech zones, creating ticketing systems, and establishing security checks that ask students to open their gowns.
One of the higher-profile disruptions took place at Duke University on Sunday, while comedian Jerry Seinfeld was both receiving an honorary doctorate and delivering the commencement address. A small, 30-person minority of the 7,000 graduates staged a walk-out, chanting “Free Palestine” and waving the Palestinian flag. Some attendees cheered, but many booed.
Seinfeld has been outspoken in his support for Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on the country led by Hamas, and he has called out the left-wing woke mentality and political correctness for destroying comedy.
The University of California, Berkeley, featured one of the larger disruptions at its Saturday commencement ceremony.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, soon after the ceremony began, a small group of roughly 20 protesters stood, presented pro-Palestinian regalia, and chanted “Free Palestine.” After security guards removed them from the graduation site, a group of roughly 300 students moved to a section of the stadium to start chanting.
After her speech was briefly disrupted, student body president Sydney Roberts returned to the microphone, remarking, “This wouldn’t be Berkeley without a protest.”
Others responded to the disruption at UC Berkeley with frustration, yelling “Kick them out,” and some students held up Israeli flags. When attendees left, they were confronted by another roughly 100 pro-Palestinian protesters.
At Virginia Commonwealth University, during a Saturday commencement speech by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), a group of roughly 100 protesters, which reportedly included students and families, stood up and walked out, holding pro-Palestinian posters and other items.
At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, agitators set up small encampments in various places on campus as students tried to celebrate graduation. They splattered paint on the façade of the South Building, where the school chancellor’s office is, hours prior to the ceremony.
Toward the end of the ceremony, during remarks from interim Chancellor Lee Roberts, a group of students unveiled Palestinian flags and started moving up the aisle. They were roundly met with boos, attendees shouting “This is America,” and chants of “USA! USA!” before police removed the agitators, according to the News & Observer.
Small protests were also seen at Emerson College and Pomona College. Students at the former sporadically broke into chanting in attempts to disrupt the proceedings but were largely overwhelmed by graduation speakers simply speaking louder. Some students at Emerson wore keffiyehs, the black and white scarf worn by many to show solidarity with Palestinians, and others stripped off their caps and gowns onstage after receiving diplomas.
Three weeks ago, more than 100 protesters were arrested at Emerson.
Pomona was forced to move its ceremony from Claremont, California, to Los Angeles, about 35 miles away, after protesters set up an encampment last week on the main stage for graduation. A small number of protesters still attempted to block entry to the Los Angeles site, where families were met with physical confrontations. At least one person was arrested, and police and private security escorted families past the protesters.
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Just hours prior to the event, protesters at the original graduation site dismantled their encampment, saying they had achieved their goal of disrupting the graduations. Last month, police arrested 19 agitators for occupying the president’s office.
Northeastern University, the University of Texas at Austin, the Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison also experienced minor disruptions.