Columbia, USC Begin Protest-Altered Graduations on May 10 Amid Campus Turmoil

Commencements have largely proceeded without disruption—although survey shows student support for turning annual ceremonies into spectacles of dissent.

Equipment for commencement exercises, now cancelled, sits at the main campus of Columbia University in New York on May 6, 2024. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Despite demonstrations and likely attempts to disrupt, universities and colleges across the United States will stage another round of commencement exercises this weekend, including on campuses roiling in nearby protests.

Pro-Palestinian groups demanding an end to the war in Gaza and divestment from Israel have embroiled at least 80 universities and colleges across more than 30 states in the largest groundswell of campus unrest since the 1980s anti-apartheid and 1960s and 1970s Vietnam War protests.