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yesterday

MIT Bars Class President from Graduation After Pro-Palestinian Speech

Her exclusion underscores escalating campus clashes over protest speech policies.

Cambridge, MA - August 4: Megha Vemuri, MIT's 2025 class president, will deliver a speech at the commencement ceremony. Regarding students protesting the war in Gaza, she wants people to know that "it's not just some fringe extremists or a bunch of random kids radicalized, but an entire generation calling out these violations."
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Overview

  • On May 29 at MIT’s OneMIT commencement, class president Megha Vemuri condemned the university’s $2.8 million in research ties with Israeli entities and urged support for a free Palestine.
  • Chancellor Melissa Nobles informed Vemuri the next day that she had violated time, place and manner rules by misleading organizers and leading a protest from the stage, barring her and her family from the May 30 ceremony.
  • MIT said it supports free expression but stood by its decision and confirmed Vemuri will receive her diploma by mail.
  • Vemuri called the ban a “massive overstep,” saying she saw no reason to cross the stage of an institution she believes is complicit in genocide.
  • The case has intensified a national debate over campus protest regulations, following similar disciplinary actions at New York University and other institutions.