NYU withholds student’s diploma over pro-Palestine graduation speech

NEW YORK: New York University is withholding the diploma of a graduating senior who used his commencement speech to condemn the genocide in Gaza.

The student, Logan Rozos, was selected by his peers at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualised Study to deliver the graduation address, in which he sharply criticised Israel’s military campaign and US support for it, prompting disciplinary action from university officials, CNN reported.

“As I search my heart today in addressing you all…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 classmates during Wednesday’s ceremony.

He characterised the violence in Gaza as “genocide,” describing it as “politically and militarily supported by the United States and paid for by our tax dollars.” The speech was met with cheers from the audience. It also received a brief applause from some faculty members seated on stage. Still, the NYU administration strongly condemned the address.

University spokesperson John Beckman said Rozos had misrepresented the contents of his speech and broken a commitment to comply with school rules regarding the event. “The student speaker lied about the speech he was going to deliver and violated the commitment he made to comply with our rules,” Beckman said in a statement. “The university is withholding his diploma while we pursue disciplinary actions.”

Beckman expressed regret that the ceremony had been, in the university’s view, hijacked by a “political diatribe” and said NYU was “deeply sorry that the audience was subjected to these remarks.” Rozos, a Cultural Criticism and Political Economy major and a member of the Gallatin Theater Troupe, has not publicly commented on the university’s decision.