WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Just a few days before Columbia University’s graduation ceremony, the school announced it would cancel commencement.
This comes after weeks of pro-Palestinian protests on the campus. Columbia University said it would hold smaller school-based ceremonies “rather than the university-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15.”
“A small group of people went too far and cost their classmates this important event,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
The White House said the president understands the frustration students feel from this decision.
“These are graduates who are going to miss out on an incredibly important day of commencement,” Jean-Pierre said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) accused Columbia’s president of allowing “outside agitators and terrorist-sympathizing students and faculty to rewrite campus rules and spew vile, anti-Jewish aggression.” He’s called for her removal.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) told CBS’ Face the Nation, these protests are doing more harm than good.
“These kinds of protests have not been helpful,” Fetterman said.
“This is a defining moment for this generation,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said.
Khanna said many of these protestors just want to see the war end. The problem is with those who go too far.
“Those few protesters who are inciting violence or engaging in that kind of antisemitism or diminishing the thousands of young people who simply want the war to end,” he said.
Columbia University joins other schools that have either canceled their own graduations or beefed-up security for the event.
