Columbia cancels university-wide graduation ceremony after weeks of anti-Israel protests

Columbia University is canceling its university-wide commencement ceremony on May 15 after weeks of disruptive and violent anti-Israel protests on campus, officials at the Ivy League school said Monday.
Instead, the university is opting for “smaller-scale, school-based celebrations.”

“We have decided to make the centerpiece of our commencement activities our class days and school-level ceremonies, where students are honored individually alongside their peers, rather than the university-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15,” the school said in an announcement.

The pared-back ceremonies will also no longer be held on the Ivy League’s iconic South Lawn – the same location where hundreds of protesters were arrested for refusing to leave a massive tent encampment erected there.