As seniors order caps and gowns, schedule photoshoots and count down the days until graduation, NYU has been quietly dismantling the celebrations they spent years looking forward to. 

Last month, administrators told student affinity groups that their graduation ceremonies — longstanding traditions honoring underrepresented communities — were no longer permitted due to the “current political climate,” replacing them with one celebration for all 13 clubs. Around the same time, student commencement speakers across NYU were informed they would not deliver remarks live, relegating speeches to prerecorded videos. But beyond stifling a quintessential celebratory experience for students, NYU’s decisions are just the latest examples of its willingness to cave at any semblance of threat from the Trump administration.

After decades of positioning itself as a global, diverse university, NYU’s cancellation of affinity graduations is a slap in the face to the international students and students of color it so eagerly uses to promote itself. For a school that plasters demographic statistics across its website and constantly emphasizes cultural programming, this decision makes it clear that diversity is less of a value and more of a marketing strategy — something to be celebrated in promotional materials, but abandoned when politically inconvenient. 

Administrators claim that the rationale for shifting from live speeches to prerecorded ones — wherein speakers will sit on stage beside a video of their remarks — is to involve more students in the programming. It is embarrassingly hypocritical to make graduation a screen-centered event while President Linda Mills preaches NYU IRL, an initiative to get students off screens and make in-person connections. 

The real rationale is quite obvious: to prevent political comments from graduate speakers at some of the university’s largest and most public events. NYU escalated its crackdown on expression amid a wave of pro-Palestinian protests in 2024, and expanded restrictions after President Donald Trump threatened to pull funding from universities that don’t align with his ideology. Last April, an NYU graduate school barred students from wearing “decorated” attire, and when a Gallatin graduation speaker condemned Israel’s siege in Gaza during his speech, the university announced that it withheld his diploma.

Drastic diversions from normal graduation proceedings are just the latest examples of NYU’s inclination to capitulate to the Trump administration’s threats. Colleges like Harvard University and Virginia Tech stifled their own affinity graduations under the forceful directive of the federal government. NYU faced no such coercion — its leadership is simply cowering. 

Administrators have worsened the situation by refusing to offer any substantial explanation. While students have vehemently expressed their disappointment and petitioned extensively for the decision to be reversed — with some noting that the affinity ceremonies are their only chance to walk during graduation — the university has not addressed the policy change since it was first announced. NYU’s silence speaks louder than justification ever could.

Just before canceling its affinity graduations, the university agreed to review all diversity-related initiatives at the request of the U.S. Department of Education, and NYU Langone Health terminated gender-affirming care for minors last month due to financial threats from the Trump administration. NYU repeatedly proves to be an institution that caves to external pressure at the expense of students, no matter what values are on the line. 

The university’s restrictive graduation policies predate the current federal climate. In 2024, NYU Abu Dhabi barred graduates from decorating their attire and edited protest gestures out of its commencement live stream, with one doctoral student allegedly deported for waving a keffiyeh on stage. That year, dozens of students walked out of Yankee Stadium as Mills gave her presidential address, a demonstration that reoccurred during the 2025 ceremony. While administrators cannot prevent all forms of protest, they have seen students’ motivation to spur political conversations and taken strides to minimize any potentially controversial incidents — at the expense of students’ personal expression.

Affinity convocation cancellations, prerecorded speeches and restrictions on what graduates can wear have turned what should be a proud moment into a showcase of compliance. By treating students as liabilities to be managed, rather than individuals to be commemorated, NYU has taken a celebration and turned it into a preapproved, sanitized display of a compliant university. 

It’s critical that the university reinstates affinity graduations and live speakers — otherwise, its commitment to diversity and free expression is reduced to nothing more than a hollow selling point. Graduation should be a time of celebration and community, not a showcase of how quickly administrators will abandon students under an ounce of pressure.

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