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last mo.

MIT Bars Class President Megha Vemuri from Graduation over Pro-Palestinian Speech

MIT says enforcing its event protocols required barring the class president after she delivered unsanctioned commencement remarks followed by a protest from the stage.

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

  • Megha Vemuri was barred from MIT’s undergraduate commencement ceremony after her May 29 pro-Palestinian address deviated from the approved script and led a protest on stage.
  • MIT stated the action was taken because Vemuri “deliberately and repeatedly” misled organizers and disrupted an important Institute event.
  • Vemuri criticized the exclusion as a “massive overstep” that lacked merit or due process and said she saw no reason to walk the stage of an institution she deemed complicit in genocide.
  • The university affirmed its support for free expression but said enforcing time, place and manner rules justified barring her, and officials confirmed her diploma will be mailed.
  • Civil rights group CAIR condemned the ban as an infringement on academic freedom, a case reflecting increased disciplinary measures against pro-Palestinian activism on U.S. campuses.