The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has barred the class of 2025 president from her graduation ceremony after taking the stage on Thursday to speak about the war in Gaza, her support for Palestine and condemnation of the institution in relation to it, according to the institution.
In reaction, on Friday, students chanted for her to walk as MIT Chancellor Melissa Nobles began her speech.
“Excuse me, I respect that you have a message to send but this is not the time or place,” Nobles said on Friday. “Today is about our graduates and their families. Please respect them and allow me to continue.”
Class president Megha M. Vemuri’s speech on Thursday was not the one provided to the institution in advance, according to an MIT spokesperson.
While the institution supports free expression, it stands by the decision to not allow the student at the Friday events because she “deliberately and repeatedly” misled commencement organizers and led a “protest from the stage, disrupting an important Institute ceremony.”
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“You have faced the obstacle of fear before and you turned it into fuel to stand up for what is right,” Vemuri said during her Thursday speech.
“ You showed the world that MIT wants a free Palestine,” she said.
Vemuri was met with yells from the crowd, some students jumping out of their seats in support of her words and others shaking their heads seemingly not in support of her speech.
President Sally Kornbluth followed Vemuri’s speech, stating that MIT values “freedom of expression” but that today is “about the graduates.”
“There is a time and a place to express yourselves and you will have many many years to do it. Let’s talk today about our graduates,” she said.
Kornbluth’s reaction was met with a round of applause.
Vemuri continued her speech by stating that the undergraduate and graduate union voted to cut ties with “the genocidal Israeli military” last spring and for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
“You 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,” she said.
Last year, MIT was one of the campuses across the country that created a pro-Palestinian encampment. It later ended as the institution said it would suspend those students who didn’t leave it and it was cleared out by police.
In her Thursday speech, Vemuri condemned MIT for what she described as its ties to Israel and said that as alumni they should continue asking MIT to cut ties.
“Right now, while we prepare to graduate and move forward with our lives, there are no universities left in Gaza. 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. The Israeli occupation forces are the only foreign military that MIT has research ties with,” she said.
“This means that Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people is not only aided and abed by our country, but our school,” she said.
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The controversy at commencement comes amid Kornbluths’ announced plans to “sunset” the university’s Institute Community and Equity Office and remove its vice president for equity and inclusion position in a letter to the school community last week. The office’s “core programs” will continue but under the purview of other offices.
