Officers break up encampments at USC and Virginia; Vermont and Dickinson cancel speakers. Last week’s intense tumult over the war in Gaza quieted a bit over the weekend, as numerous colleges and universities shifted into commencement mode and kept a tight rein on their physical campuses to try to minimize the opportunity for conflict. Not every place succeeded. Several institutions the Universities of Virginia and of Southern California, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago called in reinforcements from law enforcement to break up protest encampments they declared to violate their policies or local laws.
Speakers at USC and CUNY have withdrawn from commencement ceremonies, while one at Michigan criticized administrators for failing to divest. The 2024 graduation season is well underway, even as protesters continue to occupy lawns on campuses across the nation. But students aren’t the only ones pushing their institutions to divest from companies that support Israel’s war in Gaza; now, commencement speakers are getting in on the activism too. In her May 2 address to graduating students at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, Jodi-Ann Burey, a cancer survivor, speaker, writer, and host of the podcast Black Cancer, used her speech to criticize administrators for refusing to divest from Israel.
UVM agrees to disclose investments in response to pro-Palestinian protesters vtdigger.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from vtdigger.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
On October 21, just two weeks after the attacks on Israel by Hamas, the University of Vermont canceled a long-scheduled lecture by a prominent Palestinian.
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