Columbia University has canceled its big graduation ceremony after recent protests supporting Palestine caused a lot of trouble on campus.
A university official said “security concerns” were one of the main reasons for canceling, but they didn’t give details about why they felt the ceremony wouldn’t be safe.
Instead of one big ceremony, the school will have smaller ones for each school within the university. They think these smaller ceremonies are more special for students and their families.
The ceremonies were moved from the main lawn to the athletic complex because that’s where the protesters were camping out.
The university is trying to make things better for everyone. They’re thinking about having a fun event on May 15 instead of the big ceremony.
Columbia has had lots of people arrested during these protests. Some protesters even took over a building. The university had to cancel classes and delay finals because of all the chaos.
Last week, the police had to go into Hamilton Hall to arrest some of the protesters.
