Indian-origin student barred from grad ceremony ‘MIT wants free Palestine’

An Indian-origin student and class of 2025 president at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Megha Vemuri, was banned from attending her graduation ceremony after she used the commencement stage to voice support for Palestine and condemn the university’s ties with Israel’s defence and military industries.

According to reports, Vemuri was scheduled to serve as a marshal at the undergraduate commencement. However, on the morning of Friday, May 30, she received an email from MIT



chancellor Melissa Nobles stating that she would not be allowed to attend the event and that she and her family were barred from campus for most of the day.

“Participation in Commencement activities is a privilege. You deliberately and repeatedly misled Commencement organisers. While we acknowledge your right to free expression, your decision to lead a protest from the stage, disrupting an important institute ceremony, was a violation of MIT’s time, place and manner rules for campus expression,” wrote Nobles.