Graduation ceremonies at a handful of universities across the country faced light disruptions over the weekend, as pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged walkouts, chants, and waved Palestinian flags during commencement speeches.
At UC Berkeley, dozens of graduates stood up from their seats inside Memorial Stadium Saturday morning with signs reading “Divest” – a call for universities to get rid of their investments in companies that have investments in Israel because of the war in Gaza. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a small group of students carrying a Palestinian flag staged a silent protest at Camp Randall Stadium. At the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, pro-Palestinian demonstrators splashed red paint on the steps of a building hours before the commencement ceremony.
The protests come as administrators at universities from California to New York have struggled to find the right balance in responding to the pro-Palestinian encampments that have sprung up in recent weeks. Schools including Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been under scrutiny for calling in police to dismantle the encampments and arresting students who refused to disperse.
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