The Massachusetts Institute of Technology banned the 2025 class president from Friday’s graduation commencement ceremony after she delivered a pro-Palestinian speech at an event Thursday.
The university said in a statement Friday without naming the student that the woman delivered a speech at Thursday’s OneMIT commencement ceremony that was not the one provided in advance.
“While that individual had a scheduled role at today’s Undergraduate Degree Ceremony, she was notified that she would not be permitted at today’s events,” said university spokesperson Kimberly Allen. “MIT supports free expression but stands by its decision, which was in response to the individual deliberately and repeatedly misleading Commencement organizers and leading a protest from the stage, disrupting an important Institute ceremony.”
The speech was shared online by the Palestinian Youth Movement, which identified the student as Megha Vemuri. Vemuri wore a Keffiyeh during the speech, and called out MIT for having research ties with the Israel army and “aiding and abetting” the country with its “assault on the Palestinian people.”
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed over 52,000 people since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 people hostage. Israel has received intense criticism from around the world, including from the United Nations, for its actions in Gaza, which include cutting off aid to the enclave.
“As scientists, engineers, academics and leaders, we have a commitment to support life, support aid efforts and call for an arms embargo and keep demanding now as alumni, that MIT cuts the ties,” Vemuri said.
Her speech was met by cheers and applause from her fellow classmates, some of whom held up a Palestinian flag.
“Right now, while we prepare to graduate and move forward with our lives, there are no universities left in Gaza,” Vemuri said. “We are watching Israel try to wipe out Palestine off the face of the earth, and it is a shame that MIT is a part of it.”
Vemuri mentioned that the undergraduate body voted in favor of the university cutting ties with Israel, and faced “threats, intimidation and suppression coming from all directions, especially your own university officials.”
“But you prevailed because the MIT community that I know would never tolerate a genocide,” Vemuri said.
Vemuri then called on her fellow classmates to partake in the MIT tradition of turning their class rings that bear university mascot “Tim the Beaver.”
“And as you lift it off your fingers, notice that the beaver is no longer facing you, it is now facing the world,” Temuri said. “This is a world that we will be entering with an immeasurable responsibility. We will carry with us the stamp of the MIT name, the same name that is directly complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.And so we carry with us the obligation to do everything we can to stop it.”
NBC News has reached out to Vemuri for comment.
On Thursday, MIT President Sally Kornbluth made her remarks at the commencement for the class of 2025, encouraging them to become ambassadors for scientific thinking and discovery. Kornbluth said that the university allows “a lot of room for disagreement, whether the subject is scientific, personal, or political,” but encouraged the new grads to rely on the “beauty and power of the scientific method.”
“I need you all to become ambassadors for the way we think and work and thrive at MIT,” Kornbluth said.
Kornbluth did not mention any specific incident during her remarks, including the one involving Vemuri. It’s not clear at this time if Vemuri was officially allowed to graduate from MIT.
Vemuri is not the only graduate who has been penalized for her political views.
Earlier this month, New York University withheld student Logan Rozos’ diploma after he delivered an unapproved commencement speech to address what he called the “atrocities currently happening in Palestine” during the Israel-Hamas war.
NYU condemned Rozos’ speech, calling it an expression of “his personal and one-sided political views.”