<div class="gjw_content"><div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p><strong>CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (NEWSnet/AP) —</strong> Hundreds of students in graduation robes walked out of the Harvard commencement on Thursday chanting “Free, Free Palestine.”</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p>This demonstration came after weeks of protests on campus and a day after the school announced that 13 Harvard students who participated in a protest encampment would not be able to receive diplomas alongside their classmates. Some students chanted “Let them walk, let them walk” during Thursday’s commencement, referring to allowing those 13 students to get their diplomas along with fellow graduates.</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p>Student speaker Shruthi Kumar said “this semester our freedom of speech and our expressions of solidarity became punishable,” she said to cheers and applause.</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p>She said she had to recognize “the 13 undergraduates in the class of 2024 who will not graduate today,” generating prolonged cheers and clapping from graduates. “I am deeply disappointed by the intolerance for freedom of speech and the right to civil disobedience on campus.”</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p>Over 1,500 students had petitioned, and nearly 500 staff and faculty had spoken up, all over the sanctions, she said.</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p>“This is about civil rights and upholding democratic principles,” she said. “The students had spoken. The faculty had spoken. Harvard do you hear us?”</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p>Those in the encampment had called for a ceasefire in Gaza and for Harvard to divest from companies that support the war.</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p>Commencement speaker Maria Ressa, a journalist and advocate for freedom of the press, told the graduates that “you don’t know who you are until you’re tested, until you fight for what you believe in. Because that defines who you are.”</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p>“The campus protests are testing everyone in America. Protests are healthy. They shouldn’t be violent. They shouldn’t be silenced,” she said.</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p>Also on Thursday, the leaders of Northwestern University and Rutgers University were expected to testify at a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing about concessions they gave to pro-Palestinian protesters to end demonstrations on their campus. The chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, also was scheduled to appear at the latest in a series of hearings looking into how colleges have responded to the protests and allegations of antisemitism.</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p>The decision by Harvard’s top governing board follows a recommendation Monday by faculty members to allow the 13 to receive their degrees despite their participation in the encampment.</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p>However, Harvard’s governing board said that each of the 13 were found to have violated the university’s policies by their conduct during the encampment protest. The governing board did leave open the possibility of an appeals process, saying the corporation understands “that the inability to graduate is consequential for students and their families.”</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p>Supporters of the students at Harvard said the decision not to allow them to receive degrees at commencement violated a May 14 agreement between interim President Alan Garber and the Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine coalition that would have allowed the students to graduate.</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p>Protesters against the war between Israel and Hamas voluntarily dismantled their tents after they said university officials agreed to discuss their questions about the endowment, bringing a peaceful end to the kinds of demonstrations that were broken up by police on other campuses.</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p>There was a noticeable presence of police officers around the campus Thursday mixing with soon-to-be-graduates, their family members and sidewalk flower sellers.</p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p><strong>Follow NEWSnet on </strong><strong>Facebook</strong><strong> and </strong><strong>X platform</strong><strong> to get our headlines in your social feeds.</strong></p></div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"> </div></div> <div><div class="Article-paragraph"><p><em>Copyright 2024 NEWSnet and The Associated Press. 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