New York's Columbia University cancels main commencement after protests

Columbia had already cancelled in-person classes. More than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia’s green were arrested last month, and similar encampments sprouted up at universities around the country

Pro-Palestinian protestors chant near an entrance to Columbia University last week (Picture: Michael M. Santiago/Pool Photo via AP)

New York's Columbia University is cancelling its large university-wide commencement ceremony amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protestsbut will hold smaller school-based ceremonies this week and next, the university announced on Monday.

“Based on feedback from our students, we have decided to focus attention on our Class Days and school-level graduation ceremonies, where students are honoured individually alongside their peers, and to forego the university-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15,” officials at the Ivy League school in upper Manhattan said in a statement.