Harvard Bars 13 Student Protesters From Graduating, Sparks Yet More Protests
Harvard’s highest governing body sparked outrage by denying a faculty-led action to allow 13 students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests to walk at their commencement ceremony.
Late Tuesday night, the Harvard Corporation voted to reject an amendment proposed by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) to add 13 students to the list of graduates whose names had been left off the roll. Traditionally, the registrar sends the list of those who have met graduation requirements and are in good standing to FAS for approval. If FAS approval is secured, the list is sent onto the corporation, and the process is completed without incident.
But this year, about 500 faculty and staff members signed onto a letter demanding the restoration of those 13 students—including two Rhodes scholars—to the list of graduates. Those students had been left off the roll because they had participated in pro-Palestinian student protests and had been disciplined as a result, meaning they were no longer in good standing and not eligible for degree conferral.