Dem
51
GOP
49
Columbia University, which has been one of the flashpoints for Israel/Palestine protests, and for the related violence that has sometimes ensued, canceled its commencement yesterday, following in the footsteps of USC, Humboldt, and possibly Emory (reports vary).
We imagine that many, perhaps most, readers are familiar with how modern-day college graduations work, but we thought we'd use the opportunity to illuminate those who are not. It used to be that there was only one graduation or commencement, or maybe a handful at large universities, done by division (Humanities, Sciences, etc.). In the last 25 or 30 years, however, it's become customary to have a bunch of smaller graduations, hosted by departments and/or student activity groups (say, the African Students Union). You can't read 2,000 names at a big graduation, but you can certainly read a couple hundred at a smaller one.
Some students go to the main commencement, still, because it has the pomp and pageantry and it also tends to have the highest-profile graduation speaker. But many others only go to the smaller graduations (sometimes several of them; it's not unheard of for someone to "graduate" four or five times in one day). So, when a school cancels its main graduation/commencement, it's not quite so dire as it seems. All they are really doing is depriving potential protesters/disrupters of a really big target. It is much harder to be disruptive/get publicity when there are 40 balkanized graduations, as opposed to one biggie. (Z)