Americans may not have as many rituals as some other peoples do, but we have some. One of those is graduation, symbolizing the transition from one stage of life to another and a celebration of a young person’s accomplishments. (We may actually overdo these, as what was once a transition from college and high school studies is now often celebrated from even pre-nursery school.) Still, it plays a significant part of life, structuring time and change. Parents and grandparents who sat through boring recitals, sports events, prize days, supported kids dealing with difficult interpersonal issues, hard courses, college admission hurdles, and sacrificed to pay the cost of schooling can now cheer (or mourn) that those activities are now over.
For all the relatives’ work they now get to sit in hot muggy weather on uncomfortable folding chairs and listen to a variety of speakers selected who knows how. I’m old enough to remember when at worst we heard boring anodyne speeches to graduates about making your mark, improving the world, sharing the blessings of the your newly acquired knowledge with a world desperate for the pearls of newly acquired knowledge. Maybe a few dumb jokes were thrown in. Then everyone got their diplomas and headed for the nearest bar.
In recent years, they’ve become stages for performative, divisive screeds at a largely captive audience. You don’t have to tolerate this. Years ago, I walked out the middle of some of these speeches at very fine universities, Duke and UCLA law school. I’m not sure the even more offensive ceremonies these days would lure me to stay seated for more than 10 minutes. You needn’t play prisoner to this nonsense even if you loved your graduate. In fact, if you are ahead of the game in their senior year, you might make it clear to the schools that you expect respectful and non-divisive speakers or you will walk out even at the risk of disrupting the ceremony. At Duke when I walked out, the speakers chose to alienate the audience by promoting pro-Palestinian nonsense, and at UCLA, in an audience of mostly poor immigrant parents whose children had succeeded at achieving in law school, the speaker who rankled me complained there weren’t enough black students in the class. (Should UCLA have refused to admit meritorious Vietnamese and Eastern European first-generation American students whose parents at substantial risk fled here from oppression with nothing and no one to help them to make room for lesser-qualified applicants?)
Highlighted this week are speakers at various Ivies, but it was a typical pattern in many colleges and universities where the psychological and social meaning of the ritual was debased and the participants insulted and abused. I surely haven’t documented all the outrageous behavior, but it’s widespread enough to see how ubiquitous the move is to deprive deserving students and those who love them of a traditional ritual of passage.
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia
In her Harvard graduation speech, Indian American student Shruthi Kumar, stood with pro-Gaza, pro-Palestine protesters.
At the Harvard Kennedy school “the elected class speaker used his time to talk about Palestine and Harvard’s complicity in the ongoing Nakba… While we celebrate our graduation, Harvard University, threatened by the student uprising for Palestinian liberation, has chosen to withhold degrees from our peers who have not only fulfilled every graduation requirement, but more importantly who have exemplified veritas through their dissent.”
The student speeches at the Harvard Divinity School graduation didn’t include a single prayer for peace nor a word of support for the hostages. Just over seven minutes of solidarity with the perpetrators of the October 7th massacre.
dropped banners at graduation to call for a free Palestine and divestment.
A Yale graduate disrupted the diploma ceremony by loudly chanting “FREE FREE PALESTINE,” as the students echoed the chants in solidarity with Palestine.
Princeton University graduates handed the President a Palestinian flag during their graduation ceremony, protesting the university’s complicity with Israel.
Graduating students at Hunter College’s Silberman School of Social Work disrupted their ceremony with chants and banners in support of Palestine. “Turn your back on Silberman, all eyes on Palestine!” “PALESTINE WILL FREE US ALL.”
Columbia: Acting president Claire Shipman was greeted by boos, jeers and “Free Mahmoud” shouts and a number of grads tore up or burned their diplomas to “Free Palestine.”
Elsewhere
Lest you think only the Ivies think this discordant behavior at graduations is tolerated, around the country this had become a new ritual:
MIT:
Today should have been a happy day. I finally got my PhD from @MIT, with my 5-year-old twins, my 2-year-old and my parents (children of Holocaust survivors) traveling halfway around the world just to be there. Instead, MIT’s student commencement speaker decided it was appropriate to use the moment for hate-filled rhetoric against Israelis and Jews. And it wasn’t just one person; too many in the crowd erupted with jeers and anger. My kids might not have understood every word, but they felt the fear and hostility, and kept asking questions from that point on. It was distressing for them, upsetting for us, and deeply distasteful for everyone else who came to celebrate. How could @MIT let this happen and ruin a special day for hundreds of Jewish graduates and thousands of their family members? This is even more heartbreaking considering that just last week, a beautiful Jewish American couple was murdered in DC. Shame on MIT for allowing hate and division to overshadow a day meant for celebration and unity.
A doctoral student at the University of Nebraska recently orchestrated a drag performance appropriating the Catholic Mass for the final recital of his musical degree.
The performance imitated various parts of the Mass, including the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. It was hosted by Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church of Lincoln, Nebraska.
Two Catholic and conservative advocates told The College Fix that this “mockery” of their faith reveals a double standard in singling out Christianity and highlights a significant lack of academic rigor in university programs.
Doctoral student Joseph Willette said in an Instagram video that the performance “truly feels like the culmination of [his] past couple of years studying music composition as well as gender, sexuality, and queer communities.”
“At the core of this work lies the juxtaposition of the holy and the profane, the sacred and the sinful,” he said.
The Audience is Fighting Back
I can find only one school that treated this behavior as it should: CUNY:
“BREAKING: Protesters disrupted commencement ceremonies at City College of New York (CCNY), accusing the university of supporting actions in Gaza. CUNY Safety and NYPD officers intervened to restore order. One parent in the crowd summed up the mood: ‘Yes, get them out!’”
“…several folks (presumably students) in the crowd let down banners in support of Palestine. Two other people in the crowd proceeded to rip the banners from the students and physically assault them.
When the students were removed from graduation by security, the crowd cheered. The people who had assaulted them were allowed to stay.
Later, graduating students came on stage with a banner & faced faculty & staff, stating there would be no graduations in Gaza this spring. The professors behind me loudly stated “if you’re unhappy with it, then give your diplomas back. How about that?”
Parents have had enough. They didn’t protest at the Ivies but as they did at CUNY, they did at the University of Michigan when pro- Palestinian students moved to disrupt the ceremonies, the audience broke out in a “USA”! chant.
If these offensive, performative displays are not checked and checked hard, I suggest we all just agree with the grads that we’ll skip the ceremonial lambasting of our values and toast them at the nearest bar when it’s over. Let weak administrations look out on a sea of empty chairs.
Jesus Christ is King
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