An hour after NYU’s 191st commencement exercises were scheduled to begin, hundreds of graduates surrounded the entrances of Yankee Stadium waiting to enter the venue. The crowd demanded that administrators at the stadium expedite its security check, with some shouting, “Let us in” at stadium guards and New York City Police Department officers.

Dozens of graduates standing in the line told WSN they had been waiting to enter the stadium for more than two hours, and that they had received little direction from security. Some said the event had designated “too many” entrances for friends and family while opening just one for graduates. 

“Nobody told us anything,” graduate Jasmine Guevara said. “They pushed us here, they pushed us there — we’ve just been waiting for an hour and a half.”

Shortly after noon, security opened two more entrances at Gate 4 of the stadium and the line quickly dissipated. As the students waited in line, the ceremony’s welcome exercises began and student speaker Samuel Fung gave a speech addressing Israel’s ongoing siege in Gaza and the Russia-Ukraine war. 

When most graduates from the line entered the stadium, President Linda Mills, interim provost Georgina Dopico and general counsel Aisha Oliver-Staley were conferring honorary degrees for recipients Ouided Bouchamaoui, Katalin Karikó and Martha Minow, who was also this year’s commencement speaker. 

A university spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Contact Dharma Niles at [email protected].