The MIT 2025 class president was barred from attending her graduation ceremony on Friday after delivering a speech condemning the war in Gaza at a commencement event the previous day.
Megha Vemuri told CNN that after her speech, the university’s senior leadership informed her that she was not permitted to attend Friday’s commencement ceremony and was barred from campus until the event was completed.
An MIT spokesperson confirmed to CNN that Vemuri will still receive her degree.
“What I am dealing with right now is absolutely nothing compared to the people of Palestine, and I would take on much more if it meant helping their cause,” Vemuri told reporters on Sunday.
The class president was scheduled to speak at Thursday’s OneMIT Commencement ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she took the podium wearing a keffiyeh, a symbol of pro-Palestinian solidarity, over her graduation robe. She applauded her peers for protesting the Gaza war and criticized the university’s ties to Israel.
Tensions over university protests against the Gaza war escalated at this year’s graduation ceremonies. New York University recently announced that it would withhold a student’s diploma after he condemned “genocide” in Gaza during his graduation speech.
Last spring, MIT students, along with students from NYU, Harvard, Columbia, and other universities across the country, set up protest encampments to condemn the war in Gaza, prompting disciplinary action from the university.
“You have faced fear before, and you used it as fuel to stand up for what is right. “You showed the world that MIT wants a free Palestine,” Vemuri told the audience on Thursday, which included peers, family, university staff, and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey.
Following Vemuri’s speech, MIT President Sally Kornbluth took the podium and attempted to calm the audience.
“Listen, everyone. At MIT, we value free expression, but today is about the graduates,” Kornbluth said.
An MIT spokesperson told CNN that Vemuri’s speech on Thursday “was not the one provided by the speaker in advance.”
“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,” according to a statement released by the spokesperson.
According to the MIT Coalition for Palestine, university chancellor Melissa Nobles informed Vemuri via email that she was not permitted to attend Friday’s graduation ceremony and that her tickets had been deactivated.
Vemuri expresses gratitude to her family, who have been present and supportive this week. She says she is not disappointed that she did not get to walk the stage.
“I see no need for me to walk across the stage of an institution that is complicit in this genocide,” Vemuri told reporters.
“I am, however, disappointed that MIt is officials massively overstepped their roles to punish me without merit or due process, with no indication of any specific policy broken,” she added, labeling MIt is alleged support for free speech hypocritical.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the university’s decision to exclude Vemuri from the ceremony.
“MIT must respect academic freedom and the voices of its students, not punish and intimidate those who speak out against genocide and in support of Palestinian humanity,” said Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, Executive Director of CAIR-Massachusetts.
In the days following her speech, the young graduate received widespread media coverage, as well as a barrage of ardent support and sharp criticism.
“I can handle the attention, positive and negative, if it means spreading that message further,” Vemuri, of CNN, said.