1,000+ Harvard Students Walk Out of Commencement to Support Classmates Barred from Graduation
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Published 2024-05-24
More than a thousand Harvard students walked out of their commencement ceremony yesterday to support 13 undergraduates who were barred from graduating after they participated in the Gaza solidarity encampment in Harvard Yard. Asmer Safi, one of the 13 pro-Palestinian student protesters barred from graduating, says that while his future has been thrown into uncertainty while he is on probation, he has no regrets about standing up for Palestinian rights. “This is an ethical stance that we’re taking,” Safi says. We also hear from history professor Alison Frank Johnson, one of over 100 faculty members who voted to confer degrees on the 13 seniors, who describes Harvard’s punishment of them as an “egregious departure from past precedent,” as was the board’s subsequent overruling of faculty. “We hoped then that the Corporation, as it has always done in the past, would accept our recommendations for degree recipients and allow the 13 to graduate, which they chose not to do.”
Transcript: www.democracynow.org/2024/5/24/harvard_gaza_protes…
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All Comments (21)
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I’m a 79 year old citizen of the USA 🇺🇸 and I stand with the students. They still have their moral compass 🧭
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"Harvard Corporation". Let that sink in.
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I am 69 years old and about to witness the fall of my country What a sad state of affairs
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Like Prof Richard Wolff said, private universities don't pay taxes and they get enormous subsidies, also their grants effectively come from the government. So they are public-private instiutions funded largely by taxpayers so they should be accountable to taxpayers.
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Respect to students and faculty who stood up for free speech and right to peaceful protest.
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Universities: We encourage you to think critically. Also universities: no, not like that.
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How can they deny students from graduating? This is not charity, students pay a lot of money to attend Harvard University and in return they are denied their diplomas after studying for 2/3 years... 😳 Is it legal to do that in the US? They should be sued, it's outrageous!
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This just proves how far this university has fallen and is failing higher learning.
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Shame on Harvard. What a cruel joke.
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She is 100% right and Harvard should be ashamed.
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Good on these students. To walk out instead of taking their degrees. To say no to Harvard. To say no to having a Harvard degree.
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They have to realise who donates to universities in the US.
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Feeling so bad for the 13 students that were not allowed to graduate. SHAME ON HARVARD😡
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Harvard is NOTHING without their students
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Don’t go to this university stand for human rights
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America is not America anymore
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Down with ALL elitism!
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I am a 50 year old Aussie man and I LOVE these students. The future is bright and those now in power should fear it.
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Stop our tax payer money from funding Harvard!,
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The decadence of the US colleges and universities started on October 7th, 2023. There is no future in USA with this people. Very disappointed.
