Columbia University announced this morning that their main graduation ceremony will be canceled as a result of security concerns. Instead, the university will continue to hold a series of college level graduation events, some of which will have to be moved.

Our graduating students, their families, and their loved ones are very focused on our upcoming Commencement celebrations. We are as well. We are determined to give our students the celebration they deserve, and that they want. Our Deans and other colleagues who work directly with our students have been discussing plans with student leaders, and, most importantly, listening. Based on their feedback, we have decided to make the centerpiece of our Commencement activities our Class Days and school-level ceremonies, where students are honored individually alongside their peers, rather than the University-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15...

To ensure we will have the best conditions and resources for a meaningful experience, we have decided to relocate our Class Days and school ceremonies scheduled for the South Lawn of Morningside campus. The majority of these ceremonies will be hosted at Columbia’s Baker Athletics Complex, the timing will remain the same (with the exception of the Columbia College Class Day and Columbia Climate School), and there is no need for a change in travel plans for families. Please see below for the full list of school ceremonies, times and locations.

The athletics complex where the graduations will be moved is about five miles away from the main campus. It's probably going to be inconvenient but at least the graduations can take place on the dates originally scheduled, meaning parents and families, some of whom fly in from other countries, won't have to rearrange their entire schedules at the last minute. Still it's disappointing that the campus extremists have created this disruption. The school admitted as much.

The university’s main campus has been in a state of near lockdown since last Tuesday, when hundreds of police officers swarmed Hamilton Hall to remove some 46 pro-Palestinian protesters who had occupied the building and arrested more than 100 people protesting in and around the campus.

Columbia has repeatedly said Hamilton Hall remains a crime scene, leaving questions as to how some 15,000 graduates and their guests could easily be admitted to the area around it for the May 15 commencement. Dozens of police officers still surround the campus...

“Holding a large commencement ceremony on our campus presented security concerns that unfortunately proved insurmountable,” Ben Chang, a university spokesman, said. He added that the school had made extensive efforts to identify an alternative venue and was unable to locate one that could host such a large event. “Like our students, we are deeply disappointed with this outcome.”

I'm not sure this is such a good decision. The school is framing this as a security issue but even if a bunch of protesters got into the graduation, they could be removed and the school would have one more reason to expel them. Cancelling the main graduation gives the protesters a win they don't deserve. 

Several reports have touched on the fact that ceding this particular territory in the center of campus may be about avoiding having President Shafik give a graducation speech at the site of the former encampment. There is concern that having her do so would rile up the activists. And maybe it would, but backing down also has the potential to rile up the activists because it suggests they are still in charge somehow. Former President Trump said of the decision "that shouldn't happen" and he's right.

Trump comments on Columbia cancelling graduation.

He also has a message for Netanyahu.pic.twitter.com/e2ZvxpIozH

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 6, 2024

This guy is a professor at UPenn. Today he posted his idea of what Columbia's President Shafik should have said to preserve the main graduation.

Columbia cancelled their graduation. USC cancelled their graduation.

Capitulation to bad behavior is a failure.

I offer a suggestion of what they SHOULD have said. #consequences #timeandplace #LeadershipMatters #graduation2024 pic.twitter.com/i9kJQHbD3K

— Benjamin Abella, MD MPhil (@BenjaminAbella) May 6, 2024

Columbia went through all of the trouble to clear the campus twice in order to hold graduation there. President Shafik should have held the ceremony and made a point of having restored order to the campus. Instead, she's afraid that declaring victory will be a bad look and is throwing the protesters a lifeline. It's a mistake but I can't say I'm surprised.