More than a thousand Harvard students walked out of their commencement ceremony yesterday to support 13 undergraduates who were barred from graduating after they participated in the Gaza solidarity encampment in Harvard Yard.

Asmer Safi, one of the 13 pro-Palestinian student protesters barred from graduating, says that while his future has been thrown into uncertainty while he is on probation, he has no regrets about standing up for Palestinian rights.

  • OpenStars@discuss.online
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    5 months ago

    Attending a graduation ceremony is a different thing than being able to graduate. I think I read earlier that they were banned from the former, but I had not seen where they would literally be denied their actual degree.

      • OpenStars@discuss.online
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        5 months ago

        Thank you for the correction. Yes with all the talk of the commencement I wondered… but this article updates & confirms it.

        which essentially means that I am a student not in good standing and will not be allowed to get my degree

    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Your info is out of date. The university has since stated that the 13 students are on academic probation for a year, and will be ineligible for graduation. In short, they’re being held back for at least a full year.

      And realistically, the uni is likely waiting for the fervor to die down, before they find some bogus reason to kick all 13 out entirely. But they know they can’t do that while the spotlight is on them, so they’re barring the 13 from graduating while they wait for people to lose interest.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        In short, they’re being held back for at least a full year.

        Which means they will have to pay for another year of tuition. This sounds like it’s going to work out pretty well for Harvard’s bottom line.

      • OpenStars@discuss.online
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        5 months ago

        Thank you for sharing your perspective. Tbh I never even considered that as a possibility, though you could be right - we’ll see what happens.

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        5 months ago

        Thank you - THIS Is the kind of detail I have been wanting to know. The college will not simply “delete” their grades for the prior 4 years, so being placed on probation is quite a significant hardship, but less than if that were to happen. Do you happen to know if they would simply get their degree one year later, or have to be “re-admitted” to Harvard again for that to happen? (my guess is the former, or even if the latter then a streamlined re-admission process proffered)

        So this sounds like “introducing a delay in getting their degree” process, rather than “banning them from ever receiving a degree from that institution for life” one.

        The article mentioned someone who gets to keep their Rhodes Scholarship even, so definitely people are sympathetic, and I wonder if the main harm from all of this will fall onto the institution of Harvard itself.

        • fossilesque@mander.xyz
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          5 months ago

          It is a spiteful action because they know they would lose the ensuing lawsuit if they went further.