NYU Forced to Scrap Live Commencement Speeches Because of Pro-Palestine Activism
“Graduation is a special rite of passage. At points in the past, students and families have felt robbed of their moment, and we owe them better”
These people make everything about them. They think nothing of taking over events and they prove it all the time.
Campus Reform reports:
NYU scraps live commencement speeches after pro-Palestine activism controversy erupts
New York University (NYU) will no longer allow live student speeches at school-level commencement ceremonies starting in spring 2026, instead requiring remarks to be pre-recorded and approved in advance.
According to Washington Square News (WSN), NYU’s student newspaper, the new policy applies to individual school graduation ceremonies, where student speakers must now record their remarks ahead of time rather than deliver them live.
The change follows controversy over a 2025 commencement speech by student Logan Rozos, who accused Israel of committing “genocide” after deviating from an approved script, prompting the university to withhold his diploma.
Many students also took to WSN’s social media page to criticize the policy change.
“It was such an honor to speak at Steinhardt commencement and to directly address my classmates in the Class of 2023 and celebrate together. So disappointed to hear that the admin continues to censor student voices,” Joyce Chug, NYU ‘23, posted.
Joseph Tirella, senior director of executive communications at NYU, told Campus Reform that speakers are invited to speak for “everyone, not only themselves.”
“Graduation is a special rite of passage. At points in the past, students and families have felt robbed of their moment, and we owe them better,” Tirella said.
Tirella added that NYU’s university-wide graduation will still feature live student speakers, while individual school ceremonies will include “multiple student voices through films and recorded remarks” to ensure events are “inclusive, celebratory, and engaging for every person attending.”
WSN also reported that some students selected to speak were not initially informed that their remarks would need to be pre-recorded, raising concerns about transparency and communication from the university.
“It’s really not engaging for the families that paid thousands of dollars to see a staged, fake video,” senior Maddy van der Linden told WSN. “Even though we all know it’s because of the political stuff — if I tried to win it that way, it’s just never gonna happen.”
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Comments
another win for the blmplo armies
hurry pay them some more money
This is why we can’t have nice celebrations.
Can we do the same for Hollywood?
I get it NYU doesn’t want to be further humiliated by their students bigotry, hate and ignorance; they’d rather they just keep that in the classroom.
Perchance if the geniuses of NYU HR stopped hiring “diverse”, inclusive, incompetent, communist, anti-western trash staff, the kids they indoctrinate wouldn’t be inclined to say stupid and ignorant things at graduation.
“So disappointed to hear that the admin continues to censor student voices,” Joyce Chug, NYU ‘23, posted.
Take your 1st amendment rights to your graduation party.
Do parents really want to pay thousands of dollars, apparently, to hear people they don’t even know be political about things not remotely related to the graduation ceremony?