MIT class president barred from graduation after speaking out on Gaza

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) barred its 2025 class president from attending her graduation ceremony on Friday after she delivered a speech during a commencement event the day before condemning the war in Gaza and criticizing the university’s ties to Israel.

The student, Megha Vemuri, spoke at MIT’s OneMIT commencement on Thursday in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Wearing a keffiyeh over her graduation gown, she praised student protests against the war in Gaza and condemned MIT’s ties to Israel.

“As scientists, engineers, academics and leaders, we have a commitment to support life, support aid efforts and call for an arms embargo and keep demanding now, as alumni, that MIT cuts the ties [to Israel]” Vemuri said during her speech.

The Boston Globe reported last year that between 2020 and 2024, MIT reported receiving $2.8m in grants, gifts, and contracts from Israeli entities, based on data from the US Department of Education. The Globe noted that the data did not clarify whether the funds came from academic, individual or public sources, or how they are spent.

On Friday, MIT issued a statement – without naming Vemuri – saying that the speech delivered on Thursday “was not the one that was provided by the speaker in advance”.

The university said that the student had been informed that they would not be permitted at Friday’s undergraduate degree ceremony, despite having a scheduled role.

“MIT supports free expression but stands by its decision, which was in response to the individual deliberately and repeatedly misleading Commencement organizers and leading a protest from the stage, disrupting an important Institute ceremony,” the statement read.

MIT said in a statement to the Guardian that Vemuri will still receive her degree.

Vemuri did not immediately respond to a request from the Guardian, but told CNN that after her speech on Thursday, she was informed by university officials that she was not allowed to attend Friday’s ceremony, and that she was barred from campus until the ceremony concluded.

Vemuri said that she was not disappointed about not getting to walk across the stage, and that she was grateful for her family’s support.

“I see no need for me to walk across the stage of an institution that is complicit in this genocide,” Vemuri told CNN.

“I am, however, disappointed that MIT’s officials massively overstepped their roles to punish me without merit or due process, with no indication of any specific policy broken,” she added.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned MIT’s decision to ban Vemuri from the Friday ceremony.

“MIT must respect academic freedom and respect the voices of its students, not punish and intimidate those who speak out against genocide and in support of Palestinian humanity,” CAIR Massachusetts Executive Director Tahirah Amatul-Wadud said.

MIT’s decision to bar Vemuri from the Friday ceremony comes several weeks after New York University announced that it was withholding a student’s diploma after he used a graduation ceremony speech to condemn Israel’s deadly war in Gaza.

At George Washington University, a graduating student was banned from the campus last month after she delivered a speech during a commencement ceremony criticizing the university’s ties to Israel and expressing support for Palestinians.