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MIT bars ‘fearless’ class president from graduation ceremony over pro-Palestine speech

MIT bars ‘fearless’ class president from graduation ceremony over pro-Palestine speech

Megha Vemuri also called out her institution's complicity in the Gaza genocide, drawing equal parts praise and condemnation online.
02 Jun, 2025

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has barred its class of 2025 president, Megha Vemuri, from her graduation ceremony after she took the stage on Thursday to speak up about the genocide in Gaza.

Vemuri told CNN that after her speech at the OneMIT Commencement Ceremony, she was not allowed to attend Friday’s commencement ceremony and was barred from campus until the event concluded. She will still receive her degree.

At Thursday’s event in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Vemuri took to the podium with a keffiyeh draped over her graduation robe and praised her peers for protesting Israel’s assault on Gaza. She also criticised her university’s ties to Israel.

The speech was shared online by the Palestinian Youth Movement, among many other publications and pages.

“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,” Vemuri said.

“Right now, while we prepare to graduate and move forward with our lives, there are no universities left in Gaza. We are watching Israel try to wipe out Palestine off the face of the earth, and it is a shame that MIT is a part of it,” she added.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed well over 53,000 people since October 7, 2023.

Vemuri mentioned that the undergraduate body voted in favour of the university cutting ties with Israel, and faced “threats, intimidation and suppression from all directions, especially university officials”.

“But you prevailed because the MIT community that I know would never tolerate genocide,” Vemuri said. She then urged her classmates to partake in the MIT tradition of turning their class rings that bear the university mascot ‘Tim the Beaver’.

“And as you lift it off your fingers, notice that the beaver is no longer facing you, it is now facing the world,” Vemuri said. “This is a world that we will be entering with an immeasurable responsibility. We will carry with us the stamp of the MIT name, the same name that is directly complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. And so we carry with us the obligation to do everything we can to stop it.”

Immediately after her speech, MIT President Sally Kornbluth took to the podium to say, “Listen, folks, at MIT, we value freedom of expression, but today’s about the graduates.” According to an MIT spokesperson, Vemuri’s speech was not the one provided to the institution in advance.

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

“I see no need for me to walk across the stage of an institution that is complicit in this genocide,” Vemuri told the outlet in response. “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, calling MIT’s purported support of free speech hypocritical.

Many online commended her for taking a firm stance against the institution, the censorship, and of course, Israel.

“‘We are watching Israel try to wipe Palestine off the face of the earth.’ MIT Class President Megha Vemuri condemns Israel during her graduation speech. The students are standing up for Palestine, yet again. Shame on everyone who’s silent,” wrote a user on X.

“Megha Vemuri is a hero!” one lauded.

“Proud of this young lady for being fearless to take a righteous stand at a time when such moral clarity and boldness are becoming rare. Wishing you a brilliant future,” another added.

Many called Vemuri “bold” and “inspiring”, yet several people from India, the country her parents are from, termed Vemuri’s brave step “selective activism”, accusing her of not speaking up about Pahalgam and other tragedies. To this, many users also came to her defence.

A user shared screenshots of the kind of hatred Vemuri was being subjected to from fellow Indians. “On this platform, the attacks on Megha Vemuri, particularly by Indians, have been relentless and shameful. South Asians: let’ support our young people like Megha, Shruti Kumar, Asna Tabassum and so many others who are using their platforms to centre Gaza,” the user urged.

“A brave girl being ridiculed and shot down by most of her own,” another added. “How they jeer that she won’t be able to find a job and that she is brainwashed and all that Jazz. I say she is the only sane one. I say remember that name Megha Vemuri. An asset to any organisation she leads.”

One user said Vemuri showed “tremendous courage” in speaking up for victims of genocide and “holding forth the torch of protest at a great injustice.”

Tensions over university protests against the war on Gaza have come to a head at this year’s graduation ceremonies. New York University recently said it was withholding the diploma of a student who condemned the genocide in Gaza while delivering a graduation speech.

Free speech is under attack at many varsities across the country. On May 22, the US Department of Homeland Security stripped Harvard University of its Student and Exchange Visitor Programme certification, jeopardising the visas of the nearly 6,800 international students who make up 27 per cent of the student body. Harvard’s refusal to bow down to Trump administration demands to shut down its DEI initiatives, among other things landed it in hot water with the government. The next morning, Harvard sued and won a temporary restraining order.

Following this, the US president’s administration ordered an indefinite halt to new student visa interviews while considering foreign students to undergo social media vetting as part of their application to study in the US. At the heart of the backlash is a growing concern that the move isn’t about national security at all — it’s about silencing dissent.

US campuses have, for months, been epicentres of pro-Palestine student protests, with young activists demanding divestment, accountability, and an end to the US government’s complicity in Israel’s assault on Gaza. Earlier this month, Columbia suspended over 65 students for staging a pro-Palestine demonstration in its library.

Alongside students at NYU, Harvard, Columbia and other universities across the United States, MIT students had also set up protest encampments last spring to denounce Israel’s war on Gaza, facing disciplinary threats from the university.

Vemuri’s speech was not just brave — it was necessary at a time when voices of conscience are being punished. Her decision to use the MIT stage to condemn Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and call out institutional complicity comes amid a disturbing crackdown on free speech across US campuses.

As student protests face police crackdowns, expulsions, and visa threats, Vemuri risked not just her graduation moment but her future, standing tall for over 53,000 lives lost in Gaza and the erasure of Palestinian academic life. In an environment increasingly hostile to dissent, especially when it challenges Western-backed violence, her moral clarity cuts through the noise. It is acts like hers that remind us silence is not neutrality — it is complicity.

At a time when speaking up is being penalised and voices are being suppressed, to use a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to speak is incredibly brave.

Comments

Gurpreet Singh Jun 02, 2025 07:26pm
There’s a thin line between bravery and stupidity and the young lady may have crossed that line. Giving a politically charged graduation speech, criticizing the university you’re graduating from is a bad idea and may cost her a promising career.
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Bayu Marrukh Jun 02, 2025 07:52pm
Bravo!
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Free Gaza Now Jun 02, 2025 08:17pm
What kind of world we’re living now where peaceful protest for the right things or injustice or oppression is not allowed otherwise you will be in jail…??? This act of injustice is unacceptable by all means. Please stop it now.
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Mahmood Jun 02, 2025 08:27pm
Harvard has guts to take on Trump. That's why Harvard is the #1, the Finest of the Finest Universities of the World. Columbia, MIT, Yale and others have chickened out and bent over to be walked all over by Trump's thugs and intimidation tacticts. Note to Trump: Try and do this to U.C Berkeley, and you will be left with a few bruises in return. Cal is no chicken. They were instrumental and pioneers of the Free-Speech movement, Anti-vietnam protests and are very Pro-Palestinians without being overly anti-semetic. Trump can only pick on weak institutions , law firms and NGOs. He has another thing coming, if he even takes on U. of Chicago, Stanford of the same league.
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Falcon1 Jun 02, 2025 08:50pm
It is going to be big loss for US Universities and colleges of higher learning, when thousands of overseas students stay away from the US, due to Trump's visa restrictions on foreigners who support Palestine. When rest of the world starts sending their kids to study in countries as widespread as Canada to China, Australia to Russia, Germany to Japan, instead of the US, not only does the US loose foreign talent, great research resources, brain-powers like those before them, who founded major firms like Intel, Google, Tesla, SpaceX, Nvidia or those who foreign-born former students at the helms of Microsoft, IBM, Google, etc, will eventually results in intellectual decline of the US and huge loss of innovators, inventors and visionaries, who have transformed the world over the past 50 years due to their technological, scientific and genetic engineering skills.
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Naseem Ahmad Jun 02, 2025 09:06pm
A courageus young lady, better then our Middle Eastern Brothers.
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Laila Jun 02, 2025 10:59pm
The article states “MIT supports free expression but stands by its decision, which was in response to the individual deliberately and repeatedly misleading Commencement organisers and leading a protest from the stage, disrupting an important Institute ceremony" In Pakistan you wouldn't be allowed to complete your speech but dragged off the podium, beaten and expelled. Universities too have rules. Be honest about your speech and if they won't let you, then that's their prerogative. As it is your prerogative to not attend such schools where you in advance know of their ties to Israel.
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Joe Majumdar Jun 02, 2025 11:15pm
Her future will be dark in USA , UK and Europe. School is not for violence against others students or teachers
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Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad Jun 02, 2025 11:22pm
When the going gets tough and the pressure gets rough, only the toughest and roughest get going.
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The eastern neighbor Jun 03, 2025 02:03am
She is an Indian girl. Kuds\os
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Ron Jun 03, 2025 04:54am
how long can you silent the world?
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Bob Jun 03, 2025 05:23am
? Censorship?....repression of free fair and honest speech is contrary to the spirit and soul of what USA and it's constitution...its morality used to stand for...what a hypocrite cruel stand USA is taking and standing for genocide brutalities and war crimes .
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Bob Jun 03, 2025 05:27am
I know these comments will not be printed in there originality...because truth is being hidden and suppressed at all costs to hide the evils of genocidal IDF aided and abetted by USA..west and other..so called civilised nations
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bolo-BOLO Jun 03, 2025 06:43am
Dictator Trump beats his own Tdrum.
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Anonymouseee Jun 03, 2025 07:09am
Megha and her classmates are 200 times more courageous than any leaders in Arab world that have relations with terrorist Israel. Stay strong Megha. We are with you.
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JohnDoe Jun 03, 2025 07:44am
she lose.
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B.Joseph Jun 03, 2025 11:11am
She is Indian origin. She should have condemned HAMAS for creating this situation and ask them to release the hostages immediately.
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SG Jun 03, 2025 11:50am
And Megha Vemuri is a ....wait fot it .....Hindu. The point being - the reason some people are attacking her, albeit wrongfully, is that there is frustration about the fact that Hindus, even if just a few, do no hesitate to speak up for Muslims. Does the opposite ever happen? Food for thought.
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Laila Jun 04, 2025 02:39pm
@Bob You forgot East. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE are all in compicit. Also West is not a monolith. Ireland is a long-standing very vocal political critic of Israel. Free speech is not absolute. It is subject to local laws, international laws, rules, regulations, etc. Go and stand outside parliament and protest for Uighur Muslims on China, Balochis in Pakistan, for Imran Khan Against CM Maryam Safdar, Sharif family. Go to an airport and shout "bomnb" and see that I consequences.
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