Indian-American student banned from graduation ceremony after pro-Palestinian speech

NEW YORK: An Indian-American student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was barred from attending her graduation ceremony after delivering a speech denouncing the war in Gaza, according to media reports. Megha Vemuri, the 2025 class president of MIT, is the latest in the list of students to face discipline after protesting the war in Gaza.

Vemuri told CNN that after her speech, the university’s senior leadership informed her she was not allowed to attend Friday’s commencement ceremony and was barred from campus until the event concluded. School officials confirmed that they told Vemuri that she was prohibited from attending the undergraduate ceremony.

MIT leadership said that they stand by the punishment they issued to Vemuri. “MIT supports free expression but stands by its decision, which was in response to the individual deliberately and repeatedly misleading Commencement organisers and leading a protest from the stage,” a school spokesperson said in a statement.

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Student will receive degree

The school said that she would receive her degree. Vemuri, who grew up in Georgia, was a scheduled speaker at Thursday’s OneMIT Commencement ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts , where she took to the podium, with a keffiyeh – a symbol of pro-Palestinian solidarity – draped over her graduation robe. She praised her peers for protesting the war in Gaza and criticised the university’s ties to Israel.

An MIT spokesperson told CNN Vemuri's sppech on Thursday “was not the one that was provided by the speaker in advance.” Vemuri's father Sarat said that she was a double major, in computation and cognition and linguistics, and was told that she would receive her diploma by mail. Vemuri said she was grateful for her family, who have been present this week, supporting her. She says she’s not disappointed about not getting to walk the stage.

“I see no need for me to walk across the stage of an institution that is complicit in this genocide,” Vemuri said. “I am, however, disappointed that MIT’s officials massively overstepped their roles to punish me without merit or due process, with no indication of any specific policy broken,” she added.

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MIT purported support of free speech hypocritical

He called MIT’s purported support of free speech hypocritical. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned the university’s decision to ban Vemuri from the ceremony. “MIT must respect academic freedom and respect the voices of its students, not punish and intimidate those who speak out against genocide and in support of Palestinian humanity,” CAIR-Massachusetts Executive Director Tahirah Amatul-Wadud said in a statement.

College campuses across the US have witnessed protest encampments and accusations of antisemitism since the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023, and the ensuing war in Gaza. The tensions coupled with the Trump administration’s attacks on universities, have left some school communities wrestling with how to balance civility and safety with open expression and debate, The New York Times said.

Several students facing disciplinary threats

New York University recently said it was withholding the diploma of a student who condemned “genocide” in Gaza while delivering a graduation speech. Several students at Harvard , Columbia and other universities nationwide are also facing disciplinary threats.

At the start of the school year in September, MIT issued new school rules surrounding when and where students can protest on its campus. School leadership has responded more strictly toward unsanctioned demonstrations this year, which was a departure from the prior school year when protestors camped out on campus.