(NewsNation) — Columbia canceled its university-wide graduation ceremony Monday following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests that have taken hold at college campuses across the country.
This move comes nearly a week after the New York Police Department was called in to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus and remove protesters who had taken over a university building.
Impact on Columbia graduates
School officials say students and families will still be able to celebrate at a series of smaller ceremonies for the individual schools taking place this week and next week.
Meanwhile, student editors of the Columbia Law Review are calling for a change to the regular end-of-year grading practices.
Students are asking administrators to cancel the law school final exams and pass all students, saying in a letter that the police action on campus left the student body shaken. A part of the letter asking for passing grades also offered an alternate option, asking the university to observe the community’s “overwhelming call” for mandatory pass/fail grades during what it called a “horrific time for the campus.”
Campus protests nationwide
Around the country, there have been over 2,400 arrests on 46 campuses since April 17, with Columbia University leading one of the largest pro-Palestine movements of all the schools.
The school shifted to a hybrid online and in-person learning setting for the last few weeks of school following the protests.
Emory University also announced it would be moving its commencement ceremony off campus due to concerns about safety and security.
With graduation season looming, many college campuses across the country are looking for ways to adjust their ceremonies to include extra security in case protesters disrupt the events.
Colleges that have made deals
Amid the calls for divestment and a cease-fire, a small number of universities have struck deals with pro-Palestine protesters.
The agreements at schools including Brown, Northwestern and Rutgers stand out amid the chaotic scenes on college campuses.
Deals included commitments by universities to review their investments in Israel or hear calls to stop doing business with the longtime U.S. ally. Many protester demands have zeroed in on links to the Israeli military as the war grinds on in Gaza.
The agreements to even discuss divestment mark a major shift on an issue that has been controversial for years, with opponents of a long-running campaign to boycott Israel saying it veers into antisemitism. But while the colleges have made concessions around amnesty for protesters and funding for Middle Eastern studies, they have made no promises about changing their investments.
Protesters at the University of Vermont notched a victory when the administration announced Friday that their commencement speaker, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, would no longer be giving an address to graduates later this month.
The protesters, who erected an encampment Sunday, had demanded Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s speech be removed from the upcoming ceremony because of her role in the U.S. vetoes of multiple UN cease-fire resolutions.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
