Columbia University cancels main commencement ceremony amid campus protests

Good.

Let everyone know that this is the stupid prize you win for playing stupid games.

Hilarious. Never in my life would I have imagined some conflict where the US isn't even directly involved would trigger people so much. Also tragic because it just goes to show what antisemitism does to a motherfucker.

Yes OP, because people only go to university in order to indicate their social status and enjoy the pageantry of graduation, as opposed to actually receiving a humanistic education, expanding their horizons and consolidating a strong set of principles. And of course, a genocide being broadcasted live is MUCH less important than a graduation ceremony... And let's not even talk about how anti-Semitic it is to protest against one group of Semites slaughtering another group of Semites! Oh, the horror of it all!

Darling, you're an example of why some people go to university to get a job, as opposed to actually learning something.

Do all these kids think a "free Palestine", owned and operated by Hamas and by extension the current Iranian regime, is somewhere they'd like to live?

[quote] Also tragic because it just goes to show what antisemitism does to a motherfucker.

I present R3 as exhibit A.

[quote]Darling, you're an example of why some people go to university to get a job, as opposed to actually learning something.

You actually do go to university to get a career job. Otherwise you'll be working low-paying gigs for the rest of your life and you'll be struggling.

r4 They think the only reason those places aren't paradises is because... you guessed it, American imperialism. Also Zionism. That, above all.

[quote] And of course, a genocide being broadcasted live

Oh, dear.

And Covid took out their high school commencements (for the undergrads).

They probably didn't have a high school graduation either.

The hysterical Hamas supporter who calls everyone "darling" and "dear" like she's discussing makeup with the girlies rather than war in the Middle East is still around?

It's cancelled? Yessss! Does that mean they freed Palestinian? Fam, did you hear, we did it! It's selfie time!

Don't forget to subscribe!

They should get reimbursement of some sort.

Who decided to put those names in particular on the frieze? Kinda tacky, no?

r7 it's just beyond ignorant.

The faces of the Columbia student protesters.

r16 The one on the wheelchair cracks me up, sorry not sorry. Of fucking course she (he? they?) is also Jewish and queer. Gotta catch 'em all!

Those morons wouldn't last five minutes in Gaza.

BTW the comments for that article are a scream.

My favorites are the ones who say they are on the right side of history (an overused phrase if ever there was one) while hiding their faces.

r16 Where's that poster that keeps insisting "NO THERE'S A LARGE NUMBER OF HOT MENA MEN AT THESE PROTESTS!" were they just not there the day the photographer came?

I did some stupid shit when I was younger, so glad there was no social media around back then and that I didn't have my photo taken for a large magazine while doing said stupid shit. These people are so dumb.

As one who did my share of stupid shit in my youth, I don't envy them, r21.

It is a problem that the faculties on campuses tolerate violations of rules in the name of free expression, even to the point of tolerating students’ holding institutions hostage to their “demands.”

And let’s be honest, “free expression” in violation of rules is only tolerated for causes that a significant portion of the faculty endorse. There is simply no way a cause championed by the right would be given such latitude to disrupt the campus. So the “free expression” justification is something of a lie, or at best a partial truth.

On the other hand, putting a stop to it is not simple, and may only inflame the students (and some faculty) to the point where campus security itself becomes oppressive, leading to cancellation of even the most important events, or violence ensues. So once you have allowed the rules to be broken, you are in a trap of your own making

Allowing such behavior only encourages more of it. The only way to prevent a repeat of these situations is to have a strictly enforced protest policy. No occupations. No negotiations.

Otherwise you invite chaos, and manipulation of students by malign external actors eager for international attention and eager to sow political division in the US.

Idiots

Same. Thank god cell phone cameras and social media weren't around when I was 21. Not that I did any protests, mind you, I was just a sloppy drunken whore. None of which was ever documented and there is no evidence, for which I am eternally grateful. Today, pics of me sucking dicks and railing lines in the backrooms of bars would never go away.

Yes, R23, you're right. There's no way a pro-life encampment (for example) would be allowed. Even if it were peaceful and respectful. Even if it were not Christians, but religious Jews or Muslims protesting. It's hard to imagine such a group being allowed to occupy buildings, break windows, etc. I don't buy the "free expression" argument for a second.

I mean, I get it. It's a private university so they promote protests they believe in. I can't respect the dishonesty, though.

Imagine the parents must be pissed off. They spent a fortune on kids' education and can't even attend the graduation.

It's been six months or so since Israel started cleaning up that terrorist nest, how have these protesters not moved on to a different cause yet? It just seems like it's getting worse and worse instead of petering out as usual.

If they belive in what they are saying they should be happy to have their faces and personal details spilling out into the public realm.

They do get a graduation.

They are going forward with the department graduations. Just not the university-wide commenecement. But there is a still a graduation to take the family to.

When they were about to enforce the (at that point, illegal and trespassing) encampment the second time, some girl asked a bunch of non-protesting students to show up and start walking around the encampment and hundreds of students (and these were clearly students) showed up to make a picket to discourage administration/police from breaking through and clearing them out.

I feel bad for the students who genuinely didn't take part in any of this, but not the campers, the terrorists who seized the building later that night, or those folks who I guess didn't want to be arrested but did want to be a pain in the ass. Fuck around and find out.

I consider the keffiyeh a symbol of gay oppression. It makes me sick to see people wearing one.

RE the keffiyeh, I guess some things constitute cultural appropriation and others don't.

[quote] And let's not even talk about how anti-Semitic it is to protest against one group of Semites slaughtering another group of Semites! Oh, the horror of it all!

And yet, as if by magic, one group of semites is classified as white for purposes of the oppression/privilege matrix, and the other as brown. Otherwise you’d be paying as much attention to Gaza as you are to the actual genocide happening right now in Darfur.

I much prefer the dept graduations over the large main ceremony with its droning speakers. We hid lunch in our robes and ate during the speeches.

"To the students at @Columbia:

As a professor at the university, I must say - you deserve better. Your parents and family members, who are extremely proud of your achievements, deserve better. Your friends deserve better.

The university was happy to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from you. The least it could do is give you the graduation that you deserve and have earned.

The administration capitulated to a small and violent minority. They much rather appease the pro-Hamas mob than the thousands of peaceful students who just want a normal graduation.

No one from the administration is likely to say this, so will. On behalf of @Columbia, I am sorry."

Reductive...

How long before they start demanding universities themselves be razed down because they're perpetuating the cycle of oppression or some stupid shit like that?

They do, r38. It's called "decolonizing the university/curriculum/mind/whatever."

But of course, it's all symbolic and doesn't actually do anything to help oppressed people.

In my experience in the academy, academics who scream the loudest about equity, oppression, and social justice are often the ones who treat support staff the worst.

The (always triumphant) pointing out that antisemitism can’t be real because Arabs are also semites is one of the dumber arguments ever. The term “Semite”was a 18th century German “racial” classification with no basis in science. Yes, “scientifically” it referred to all inhabitants of the Middle East. But in the context of 19th and 20th Century Germany, the only “Semites”’ around in Germany were the Jews. That’s where the word “antisemitism” originated, and it clearly meant, and continues to mean, hatred of Jews.

[quote]There is simply no way a cause championed by the right would be given such latitude to disrupt the campus.

You're right, of course, because there are very fine people on both sides of a rally inspired and conducted by white supremacists allowed to rampage for two days before they killed one and injured dozens.

Over removing monuments.

[quote]Also tragic because it just goes to show what antisemitism does to a motherfucker.

And even those protesters who aren't anti-Semitic obviously have a huge problem with their critical thinking skills if they unequivocally support the other side, given the official policies of the other side towards women, gay people, etc.

^^^ wedge issue drivel is all the desperate Ziono-fascists have left.

Sure we are murdering them so we can steal their land. But they’re not progressive enough, so they *deserve it.*

Maybe this is the climax and they'll calm down over the summer holidays.

The neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville itself was constitutionally protected speech. The riots the next day did not happen with the forbearance of authorities. It’s not as though the University let the marchers set up a white supremacist encampment on campus.

[quote] Sure we are murdering them so we can steal their land.

The land is disputed. Who are you to disentangle a century of war, violence, dislocations, and international agreements to declare that Israel “belongs’ to the descendants of people who may or may not have fled some of it 80 years ago, and present yourself as speaking some manifest “truth?” You are simply taking a side.

Not having to sit through an interminable graduate ceremony is actually a plus!

College gradations are important to the institutions, the students, the faculty and especially the families of the graduates who travel from all over the country (the world in the case of Columbia). These graduates probably had no high school graduation because of COVID. The fact that some people consider them a bore is beside the point. It’s a big disappointment to many.

Is this mainly happening in liberal universities?

Most of the protesters seem to be ultra-liberal.

What privilege, to decide that others don't need or deserve a graduation ceremony because they don't really matter.

To you, maybe.

You sound exactly like the old, white, straight Republican men in govt who think their opinions and preferences ought to be the basis for every law and regulation. Well done.

BTW: those who really believed in Ukraine's freedom went to fight in Ukraine. I guess they were willing to sacrifice Door dash, though.

U$C is hardly a bastion of progressive politics. 🤓

It’s happening all over, but it is more indulged on liberal campuses

Of course the protestors are ultra-liberal. These protests are largely an expression of progressive “solidarity of the oppressed” doctrines.

Even if some conservatives are critical of Israel’s tactics, they are never going to march in solidarity with Hamas.

[quote] How long before they start demanding universities themselves be razed down because they're perpetuating the cycle of oppression or some stupid shit like that?

We have a plan for that. We will now insist you stand with your hand over your heart while we recite the Land Acknowledgement Statement.

Hamassholes.

These are the same idiots who think they die for the FLAG. A diploma is the reality. It is like the Constitution.

The Flag is a symbol of the Constitution, as is the symbol of the graduation ceremony. But it is just that, a symbol.

Grab your diplomas AND GET TO WORK! FIND A JOB. GO TO GRAD SCHOOL.

[quote] The neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville itself was constitutionally protected speech. The riots the next day did not happen with the forbearance of authorities. It’s not as though the University let the marchers set up a white supremacist encampment on campus.

Senator Cotton, we know you are a closeted homo, but what you don't seem to understand is these are protests of an ACTUAL war and acts of genocide. It is not a march of douches in dockers, holding tiki torches crying about some perceived loss of privilege -- while also shouting anti-Semitic slogans.

Any white, Jewish, and/or male professor who insists on "decolonization," and does not resign immediately so that a POC/LGBTQ+/female can take their place is full of shit. Why not go further and give all your possessions to a Native American? Start with your condo. It's on stolen land, after all.

But "decolonization" always seems to start with someone else, doesn't it? It starts with YOU, dear reader. Ditto "ending whiteness." White/Jewish people who promote that never seem to start with themselves. All it takes is a rope or some pills, but no. Ending whiteness is supposed to start with YOU, not them.

"Useful idiots," indeed. And they would be the very first against the wall if there were any kind of Marxist revolution.

They should all be reimbursed by the US government for the pain and suffering of missing their graduation. The trauma must be unbearable!!

- Joe Buy The Votes Biden

[quote] It is not a march of douches in dockers, holding tiki torches crying about some perceived loss of privilege -- while also shouting anti-Semitic slogans.

Replace dockers with purple hair and a nose ring and you've got a Columbia student.

It's probably a good thing the lid has been blown of this problem. I knew liberal universities were fairly pampering to Muslim students, and have been for many years. But I never guessed for a second there were so many jihadists running around the campuses, especially in the form of liberal arts teachers.

The ceremony would no doubt be ruined somehow by protestors. You think they'd miss that opportunity?

Speaking of perfect opportunities, I think something horrible might happen on Thursday when Israel performs at Eurovision. I wouldn't put it past Greta Thunberg to nail herself on a cross live on that stage.

Fuck these entitled little ingnorant cunts for ruining everybody's graduation.

You’re so right, r56. The tens of thousands of people looking forward to celebrating Columbia’s commencement should not complain. People are expressing important opinions here and that’s

all [clap]

that [clap]

matters [clap].

The school/college commencements are still happening. That's enough.

A university-wide celebration is a worthy sacrifice for the cause of anti-Zionism that will no doubt bring its advocates much needed support and goodwill on and off the campus, right r66?

Just look at all they have accomplished for the Intifada!

Dopey kids.

I guess gainful employment isn't on their bucket list. Would any of you hire one of these freaks for any kind of job? It would be an ongoing nightmare of complaints and demands.

That’s why most of them wear masks.

[quote]Imagine the parents must be pissed off. They spent a fortune on kids' education and can't even attend the graduation.

I can't imagine the students feel very deeply about a graduation ceremony. Aren't they all about the parents?

It's unfortunate, but it's not life altering/shattering.

There was a guy who said he would hire these anti Israel protesters and his company stock dipped immediately after the comments

FEW undergraduates at the Ivy League are paying full price. Only the rich ones who can afford it.

FAFO

The Law School is holding graduation on May 13, but they moved the ceremony (which normally takes place on the Main Campus at West 116th Street) way uptown to the Soccer Stadium on West 218th Street. Hopefully the 100+ block distance will keep the protesters away, but anything is possible. At least it's in a nice neighborhood.

You underestimate how wealthy the student populations at Ivies are r74. About 49% of students at Columbia receive aid, but half of them are wealthy enough they pay sticker price.

I protested the Vietnam War in the US and was in the Nuclear Arms protests in London. I've marched for civil rights.

The right and the rightwing US officials always called out "outside agitators," just as corporations would us the same term for union reps. The charges were false, insofar as external agents were not attempting to manipulate the crowds or the people wanting to see action.

Now I see what appears to be the actual inclusion of people from the outside, representing other countries' interests, putting money into social media months before Hamas made its move, laying out a framework for anti-Israeli action and the anti-Jewish atmosphere were are seeing. The equation of "Zionism" with being Jewish, with people attacking American Jews, and with a carnival-idealism-wear-the-scarves foolishness conflating what they're doing with some kind of justice.

Some kind of justice, indeed.

Yes you're right it's about 50% across the ivies for undergraduates. I thought it was closer to 65%

The protests weaken the cohesiveness of United States and the potential re-election of the president, R78. To those outsiders you mentioned and the people funneling money and providing training in terrorist tactics to the protesters, that is the end goal. It has nothing to do with helping the people of Palestine, only harming the US and helping to further enrich themselves.

Those kids are being used for nefarious purposes. They could take over every college campus and the Palestinians lives wouldn't change a lot for their efforts. But, hey! TikTok is egging them on.

Don't forget to subscribe, fam.

*These protests weaken

True, R80, but arguably these kids would be overjoyed to see the US in ashes, since they have been taught from childhood that it's rotten through and through, ever since it was conceived by cishet white male slave owners in powdered wigs.

What would replace the US if it ceased to exist? I don't think they've fully thought that through. Some kind of utopia, I suppose.

They haven't thought passed the goal of CHAOS, R82.

The "after" will be someone else's problem. The grown-up stuff and the clean up always are for the revolutionary types. They're too busy debating. Too busy with purity tests.

People who have the goal of chaos are terrorists, mentally ill, or children.

No, r75, it's a small percentage of the student body fucking around and the entire graduating class having their commencement ceremony canceled. The students might not care that much, but I guarantee lots of disappointed parents resent this.

Since the parents are in town anyway, they can all go see " Lempicka."

This really has little to do with Palestinians. At the core, the progressives, woke, marxists really want to destroy it all in the West so their imagined marxist utopia will rise from the ashes. Unfortunately, they are in bed with the jihadists. They are riding on a scorpion's back. This was exactly the case with the Iranian islamic Revolution. Once khomeini, 40, 000 of leftist/marxists were executed.

There is going to be a response to it all soon. I suspect it is not going to be pleasant.

R17 don't forget the "& FUCK ABLEISM", as if that has anything to do with the matter at hand.

^^^Once khomeini came to power...

The battle that is inevitable will not be between the marxists and everyone else. It will be the jihadists against the non-muslim populations. This is exactly what happened in Lebanon and several other countries. Islam is not a religion of peace. Well, it is once a population/country has been islamicized. The UK is well on the way there. It is inevitable at this point unless something changes.

No one goes to college because they want to sit through a three hour ceremony. I would have to say that on the scale of horrific tragedies, missing a graduation ceremony is not as bad as dying in Gaza because Netanyahu wants to prolong his career by a few months.

There are affinity group graduation ceremonies going on at many campuses this year, more than usual....black, Latino, Jews, LGB, etc.

[quote]No one goes to college because they want to sit through a three hour ceremony. I would have to say that on the scale of horrific tragedies, missing a graduation ceremony is not as bad as dying in Gaza because Netanyahu wants to prolong his career by a few months.

There are people dying all over the world, all the time. Time to grow up. College graduation in the US has zero to do with Gaza.

Too bad they didn't care about the Syrians. Or the Kurds. I guess it wasn't an election year though and TikTok didn't mention it, right?

I guess they have no qualms about the slave labor that produces their fast fashion or their cell phones that they post their videos or selfies on, either.

Those lives don't matter. Of course. Because TikTok didn't tell them they did.

This a very interesting conversation with Coleman Hughes, a recent graduate of Columbia. The pro-palestinian crap has been on campuses for several decades. He makes a lot connections to the many threads involved in all that is going on. Basically, these kids are a bunch of indoctrinated fools who have no clue about history or facts and probably couldn't muster the cognitive ability to see the world in more than just oppressed/oppressor; white oppressors/brown oppressed narratives they been lied to about for much of their educational years.

This website is now just dumb right wing trolls telling each other “Exactly”.

R86 is right in that this was exactly what happened in the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution. Tens of thousands of Iranian leftists, many of whom were members or supporters of groups that took part in the revolution were executed by the new Islamic Republic that they had helped to bring into existence. The Islamic Republic thoroughly used the Marxists/Socialists to help Khomeini gain power and then were summarily executed once they'd fulfilled their role as useful idiots.

This same cycle has been repeated over and over via Islamic extremist groups since the late 60's and far leftists fall for it over and over again.

What’s happening at Yeshiva U?

Actually, R95, many of us are giving facts about the current situation and the history and players that led up to it. Some of us know our history very well and know a lot about politics and religion. It may not be what you were indoctrinated to believe. This doesn't mean that those of us who are saying truths you do not want to hear or are warning about a future you do not want to face are right wing trolls.

Colson Whitehead Withdraws as Commencement Speaker at UMass Amherst

R98, tell us all where you grew up and what age generation you are. If it’s anywhere in the US and you are a Boomer or X’er, then there’s a pretty solid chance you have absolutely been indoctrinated by completely bullshit talking Zionist points.

There’s a very obvious reason why the US populace has been an overall outlier even in the Western world when it comes to public sentiment re the Israeli / Palestinian conflict.

“Some of us know our history very well and know a lot about politics and religion. ”

Oh? So you must be intimately familiar then with how Israel’s entire national mythology is based on denying Palestinian existence, their connection to the land, their right to statehood and security, their nationhood, and on their ethnic cleansing (starting all the way back when with the Nakba), ongoing belligerent military occupation, or a combination of all the above.

Or familiarity with the fact that the majority of Zionists reject the right of return for Palestinian refugees recently expelled, despite Palestinians being native to the land, having lived there for thousands of years? But allowing a right of “return” for the extremely distant (supposed - no way to even definitely prove it) ancestors of ancient Jews who fled over 2000 years ago?

^ descendants, not ancestors

Some trolls will be extremely triggered in 3, 2 …

R 100 Please.....Take your meds.

[quote]So you must be intimately familiar then with how Israel’s entire national mythology is based on denying Palestinian existence

No, there was supposed to be a Palestinian state. It was to be a partition, but Arabs couldn't abide the idea of Jews running their own state. If they couldn't have all the land, they refused their own state. Many, possibly most, organizations promoting Palestinian statehood are based on eradicating Israel: from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free. And if the Palestinians wanted to return, they should have made peace in the 1950s. Time has marched on and so has Israel.

Yep, r104. And how exactly should an entire culture react when time after time the Muslim world has shown that they want to eradicate the Jews entirely from the planet? Just sit by and let them? The Jewish culture has been demonized for generations by religious zealots all over the world. Israel has a right to defend itself from the insane jihadist who won't ever give up until either a. Israel and all jews are wiped from the planet, or b. those people trying to wipe them out are themselves wiped out. Looks like in this case, the palestinians and the Hamas supporters everywhere are choosing option b. Hard to feel sorry for a people who would 100% do the exact thing that Israel is doing to them if they had the capabilities to do so.

Hundreds of cultures and religions have come and gone. Some are destroyed by other nations. Some are replaced with other religions. Wars determine history. Nazi's were essentially "genocided" and although some idiots still embrace their ideology, the Nazi party as it was in the 30's and 40's does not exist anymore. That's the risk and cost of declaring a war or participating in actions to start a war. I'm not going to cry tears for a people who would see women go back to burkas, subjected to rule by men, and gay men and women wiped out. And I would never be caught dead protesting FOR the culture who wants Sharia law, no matter how much I thought they were suffering.

R200 thanks for the great parody post! 😂

They fucked around, and found out.

My employer sent me to Columbia for some classes for work. I loved it. That was about 8 years ago though.

Is this the school where a mom jumped off the balcony during the graduation?

Agree with R105. Well said.

R108, yours has got to be one of the most thought-provoking and fascinating posts in DL history. Congratulations!!!!!

I know, r107.

R100, I've read many books, I have visited many places and I have talked to many people. No one has indoctrinated me, they have tried, especially in graduate school. I think truth is very obvious to those who are smart and courageous enough to see it.

As a old German woman once said to me in a thick German accent, "Ve all know the trut, da question iz if ve vant to zee it or not."

r109 that was Ohio State.

I didn't know it was a mom, though.

Never mind, 109:

[quote]R113 I've read many books, I have visited many places and I have talked to many people.

Well, I've been undressed by kings, and I've seen some things that a woman ain't supposed to see.

That is all you've done in your life, Charlene at R116? How very sad. I think you also said you've been to the isle of Greece. Well. dear, Greece isn't an isle you totally uneducated moron. Do try to read a book! Even one.

Well, they could have had a graduation like Thomas Jefferson University.

[quote]May V. Lee Zubeth Brotoski. Syer Ovoon Jean June Breenun. Victoria Lee Zubithruss. These are the names announced at the Thomas Jefferson University graduation ceremony – except the graduates were really named Maeve Elizabeth Brostoski, Sarah Virginia Brennan and Victoria Elizabeth Bruce.

[quote]At the university's commencement ceremony for nursing students on Thursday, the person tasked with calling out graduates' names botched several of them – even ones as simple as Thomas.

R118

What a mess. One student tore up her diploma; it should not be replaced, but everyone knows it will.

Like, she totally freed Gaza when she ripped up the paperwork from the oppressor and colonizer!

What do you mean, like, no one wants to hire her now? Do these companies not realize she like, freed all of Gaza?

Just wanted to say parenthetically that the "writing" and "editing" of that article at R120 is appallingly bad.

I'd suggest notifying the editor of the Jerusalem Times, R122.

The Free Palestine dopes should not be graduated as they haven’t learned shit in school.

I have a feeling that Pride is going to be a fucking shitshow this year, thanks to these morons.

If they fuck up my Pride parade I will rip their masks from their unwashed faces, wipe my ass on them, and throw them back in their faces.

I am thoroughly sick of their shit.

Take it to Gaza, children. Go co-op some sand.

"Queers For Palestine" is one of the most retarded things ever. As r126 said, they should visit Gaza. Let them experience how much their queer asses are just loved and adored by Islamists.