Amid Harvard Commencement Pageantry, Protesters Demonstrate

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Some 30,000 graduates, family, and friends filled Harvard Yard for the university’s 373rd commencement on Thursday.

During commencement remarks by David Parkes, Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, hundreds walked out while chanting “Let them walk,” a reference to the 13 Harvard College seniors who were denied degrees after taking part in Harvard Yard's pro-Palestine encampment.

During the walk-out, Parkes continued to speak, raising his voice over the protester's chants.

There was a heavy law enforcement presence around the campus as graduates and their family members mixed with protesters.

Lily Grove Class of 2022, was critical of the school's decision to withhold degrees. "It is totally against Harvard's mantra of Veritas," she said. "They are not standing up to the truth."

There were also supporters of Israel at the commencement.

A doctorate student holding an Israeli flag said the school had a right to discipline students who broke the rules. "To those students who usurped Harvard property and violated Massachusetts law, I think that there were consequences to those actions."

Nobel Prize-winning journalist and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa was the commencement's principal speaker. "Our world is on fire. Welcome to the battlefield," she said.

A crowd of protesters who walked out of commencement packed into the Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church, where students took to the podium and told stories of young Palestinians whose lives have been cut short.

The group, who organized what they are calling the "People's Commencement," is still pushing Harvard to cut ties with Israel.

WBZ NewsRadio's Madison Rogers (@MadisonWBZ) reports.

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