Columbia University announced Monday the school’s main convocation is cancelled and will be fractioned off into smaller ceremonies off-campus or “Class Days” due to wide-spread anti-Israel protests. Further, final exams will be either delayed, cancelled, changed to a take-home exam, or re-weighed so students can have “a no-harm final.” All classes and assignments have been shifted to a “remote” learning structure for “security” reasons. .Police stormed the Columbia campus last week, cleared encampments and the occupied Hamilton Hall academic building and arrested more than 100 students last week. Convocation at the University of Illinois, held over the weekend, was disrupted by several grads who unfurled Palestine flags. .The Columbia convocation ceremony was scheduled to be held as usual at the campus’ main campus, where the Hamas-supporting occupiers were camped out. It will now be sectioned off into small ceremonies on different dates and held mainly at the school’s off-campus athletic summer in the north end of Manhattan. .“These past few weeks have been incredibly difficult for our community,” the university wrote in an email to students.“Just as we are focused on making our graduation experience truly special, we continue to solicit student feedback and are looking at the possibility of a festive event on May 15 to take the place of the large, formal ceremony.”.On the Columbia website, school officials said they “are determined to give students the celebration they deserve, and that they want.”“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,” the website states. “Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families.”.Former president Donald Trump addressed Columbia’s grad cancellation Monday morning. He pointed out it has been revealed several of President Joe Biden’s donors fund these anti-Israel campus protests. Holding a newspaper with the school on the front page, Trump said, “Now it just came out, Colombia just canceled their commencement.”“That shouldn't happen. And it also came out that the protesters, many of the protesters, are backed by Biden's donors.”“Are you listening Israel? I hope you're listening Israel.”“That's where the money's coming from.”According to an analysis from Politico, several of the president’s biggest financial backers who are pushing for his re-election, families like the Soros’, Rockefellers and Pritzkers also backed campus protests.
