NYU withholds diploma of student over condemnation of Gaza atrocities
New York University (NYU) has decided to withhold a student’s diploma after he expressed condemnation of the bloody Israeli military campaign against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and widespread destruction across the besieged territory during his graduation ceremony.
On Wednesday, Logan Rozos, an undergraduate student speaker from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, delivered his commencement speech in which he said: “The only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine.”
Rozos told the crowd that “as I search my heart today in addressing you all”, it is his “moral and political commitments [that] guide me” into condemning the brutal Israeli military onslaught on Gaza, which has killed at least 53,010 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded another 119,919 individuals since October 7, 2023.
Rozos went on to say, “The genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars and has been livestreamed to our phones for the past 18 months. And that I do not wish to speak only to my own politics today, but to speak for all people of conscience, and all people who feel the moral injury of this atrocity.”
Rozos’s anti-war address received enthusiastic cheers and applause from students throughout the auditorium.
Following Rozos’s speech, NYU released a statement saying that it “strongly denounces the choice by a student at the Gallatin School’s graduation today … to misuse his role as student speaker to express his personal and one-sided political views”.
As of Thursday morning, Rozos’s student profile on the NYU Gallatin website seems to have been removed, displaying a message that reads, “Page or File Not Found (404 Error).”
Last August, NYU updated its student conduct guidelines to include “code words, like ‘Zionist’” as examples of discriminatory speech.
“For many Jewish people, Zionism is a part of their Jewish identity. Speech and conduct that would violate the [nondiscrimination and anti-harassment policy] if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the NDAH if directed toward Zionists,” the university asserted.
The updated guidelines came months after anti-war students at NYU and other college campuses across the United States demonstrated in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
As a result, NYU administrators called police to campus, leading to widespread arrests of students and faculty members.
Last December, two tenured professors, labeled as ‘personae non gratae’ by NYU, stated that the university intensified its suppression of anti-war discourse due to influence from pro-Israel groups.
Professors Andrew Ross and Sonya Posmentier were prohibited from accessing specific university facilities. This restriction followed their participation in a sit-in at the university library, advocating for the institution to withdraw investments from companies benefiting from Israel’s atrocious campaign in Gaza.
