NYU is withholding the diploma of a Gallatin graduate after he condemned “the atrocities currently happening in Palestine” during his speech at the school’s graduation ceremony on Wednesday. The university has faced significant pushback for its decision from several student, faculty, alumni and civil rights groups.
Logan Rozos, the student speaker at this year’s ceremony, said that his “moral and political commitments” guided him to speak on behalf of those affected by Israel’s ongoing siege in Gaza — which has prompted several demonstrations on campus in the last two academic years. Shortly after his speech, NYU spokesperson John Beckman issued a public statement denouncing Rozos’ choice to “misuse his role” to “express his personal and one-sided political views.” Beckman said that Rozos lied about the speech he would deliver and “violated the commitment he made to comply” with the university’s rules.
“I want to say that the genocide currently occurring, supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars and has been live streamed to our phones for the past 18 months,” Rozos said during his speech. “I do not wish to speak only to my own politics today, but to speak for all people of conscience, in all people who feel the moral injury of this atrocity.”
Rozos did not respond to requests for comment. During his three-minute speech, most graduates in the Beacon Theatre cheered while other guests booed him and yelled “Go to Palestine” when he mentioned the word “genocide.” At the end of the ceremony, Gallatin Dean Victoria Rosner apologized to the crowd for the disruption.
The group NYU Alumni for Justice in Palestine encouraged alumni to email Beckman and Rosner to demand that the university release Rozos’ diploma in an Instagram post on Thursday. The group said that “no one should be punished for speaking out against a genocide” and included Beckman’s email address and phone number. Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine also encouraged members of the NYU community to send emails to eight university and Gallatin administrators, accusing NYU of violating academic freedom. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, New York — a Muslim civil rights group — commended Rozos on Thursday for demanding an end to the war in Gaza and called on NYU to end any disciplinary proceedings against him.
Hours before Beckman’s statement, the account EndJewHatred a posted a video of Rozos speaking at the ceremony, criticizing NYU for hosting a “pure, unchecked Jew-hatred” ceremony with a speaker that had made many graduates feel “unsafe” with his “false narratives and lies.” It also demanded that NYU publicly condemn Rozos’ speech as a violation of university policies and revoke his diploma. On Thursday, the New York and New Jersey branch of the Anti-Defamation League applauded NYU for seeking disciplinary action against Rozos and condemning his speech.
In an interview with WSN, Gallatin professor and FSJP member Ritty Lukose called the ceremony a “violation of academic freedom” for silencing pro-Palestinian speech. She added that although Rozos likely deviated from the speech he submitted, it’s hard to determine whether he violated university policy because he was never asked to sign a document that “obliged him to say what he submitted.”
“Graduation speeches are occasions in which people speak to the issues of their generation, and that’s what Logan did and we should respect and stand by our students when they feel compelled to do so,” Lukose said. “The submission of what you’re going to say is part of a structure in which academic speech about Palestine and what’s going on in Gaza is being actively suppressed.”
At around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Gallatin removed Rozos from its website highlighting 21 distinguished students in the school. About three hours later, the group Faculty and Staff Against Antisemitism at NYU released a post claiming that Rozos was “groomed” by Gallatin professors, who “taught him that truth is optional and performance is everything.”
A Gallatin professor, who requested to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation, said that most faculty on stage did not view Rozos’ speech as a violation of school policies and that “there was no reason” to ask him to leave. Lukose said that even if faculty disagreed with his speech, there was “no reason to curtail his right to say it.”
“He did exactly what everybody on that stage was celebrating students for and urging them to continue,” Lukose said. “For the university to behave punitively and to condemn him for following his moral conscience is just unconscionable.”
At last year’s Gallatin ceremony, dozens of graduates held signs reading “free Palestine” and “NYU has blood on its hands” as they crossed the stage. A student also shook the hand of Associate Dean of Students Patrick McCreery with red paint and some refused to shake hands with Rosner. Some students also yelled phrases such as “you support genocide” as Rosner gave her speech.
Last year, the valedictorian in Global Liberal Studies was prohibited from delivering a speech at the program’s graduation ceremony that criticized NYU’s ties to Israel, sanctions against pro-Palestinian protesters and police prescence on campus because the speech was “not celebratory.”
“What’s particularly tragic is that this is a moment where there’s a war on higher education from Washington, D.C.,” Vasuki Nesiah, a Gallatin professor and member of NYU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, told WSN. “NYU should be standing up for academic freedom, for the integrity of institutions of higher education and not conducting that war in house.”
Contact Amanda Chen at [email protected].
