The Massachusetts Institute of Technology banned the 2025 class president from Friday’s commencement ceremony after comments she made at a ceremony earlier in the week.
During Thursday‘s OneMIT Commencement Ceremony, Class President, and graduate of Alpharetta High School, Megha Vemuri delivered a speech in which she made statements in support of Palestine.
“You have taken the obstacle of fear before and you turned it into fuel,” she told fellow graduates. “You showed the world that MIT wants a free Palestine.”
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She goes on to say that last year, the student body voted to cut ties with the Israeli military and called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Vemuri continued by critiquing the university, saying that students faced threats and intimidation “especially from your own university officials.”
“We are watching Israel try to wipe Palestine off the face of the earth, and it’s a shame that MIT is a part of it,” Vemuri said. “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.”
Though they did not name Vemuri, MIT confirmed in a statement to Channel 2 Action News that a graduating senior delivered a speech at the OneMIT Commencement Ceremony on Thursday that was not the speech she had gotten approved.
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They say that the same student was set to speak at Friday’s Undergraduate Degree Ceremony, but “was notified that she would not be permitted at that day’s events.”
“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 statement went on to say.
Earlier in the week, the online program for Friday’s commencement ceremony included an introduction by Vemuri. During the ceremony, MIT President Sally Kornbluth delivered introductory remarks.
MIT confirmed that although the student was banned from the ceremony, she will receive her degree.
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