By In a powerful display of solidarity with Palestinians, scores of graduating students at Yale University staged a walkout during the institution’s commencement exercises on Monday. The protesters voiced their opposition to the ongoing Israeli war in Gaza, Yale’s financial ties to weapons manufacturers, and the university’s response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus.
The walkout commenced as Yale President Peter Salovey began announcing the traditional college-by-college presentation of degree candidates on the grounds of Yale’s Old Campus, which was filled with thousands of graduates in their caps and gowns. At least 150 students seated near the front of the audience stood up in unison, turned their backs to the stage, and marched out of the ceremony through Phelps Gate, retracing their steps from the processional into the yard.
Many of the protesters carried small banners with slogans such as “Books not bombs” and “Divest from war,” while some wore red-colored latex gloves symbolizing bloodied hands. Other signs read “Drop the charges” and “Protect free speech,” referencing the 45 individuals arrested last month during a police crackdown on demonstrations in and around the New Haven, Connecticut, campus.
The walkout drew cheers of support from fellow students in the crowd, but the protest remained peaceful and did not cause any disruption to the ceremony. The stage made no mention of the protest.
Yale is one of numerous U.S. campuses that have been shaken by protests over the escalating Palestinian humanitarian crisis resulting from Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip, which followed the bloody October 7 cross-border attack on Jewish settlements by Hamas militants. The University of Southern California canceled its main graduation ceremony entirely, while dozens of students walked out of Duke University’s commencement last week to protest its guest speaker, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who has been a vocal supporter of Israel throughout the war in Gaza.
The fallout from a violent attack on pro-Palestinian activists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), reverberated on the UC Santa Cruz campus on Monday, as academic workers staged a protest strike organized by their union. Much of the student activism has targeted academic institutions’ financial ties with Israel and U.S. military programs benefiting the Jewish state. In response, pro-Israel supporters have branded these protests as antisemitic, testing the boundaries between freedom of expression and hate speech. Many schools have called in police to quell the demonstrations.
At UC Santa Cruz, hundreds of unionized academic researchers, graduate teaching assistants, and post-doctoral scholars went on strike to protest what they claimed were the university’s unfair labor practices in handling pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The strikers are members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 4811, which represents approximately 2,000 graduate students and other academic workers at UC Santa Cruz and about 48,000 in total across all 10 University of California campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Last week, the UAW 4811 rank-and-file voted to authorize union leaders to organize a series of “standup” strikes through the end of June on individual or groups of UC campuses rather than across the entire university. The Santa Cruz strike marked the first union-backed protest in solidarity with the recent wave of pro-Palestinian student activists, whose numbers, according to the UAW, include graduate students arrested at several University of California campuses.
Union leaders cited the arrest of 210 people at the scene of a pro-Palestinian protest camp torn down by police at UCLA on May 2 as a major impetus for the strike. The night before, a group of pro-Israel supporters physically attacked the encampment and its occupiers in a melee that lasted for at least three hours before police intervened. The university has since launched an investigation into the incident. The strikers are also demanding amnesty for graduate students who were arrested or face discipline for their involvement in the protests.
UC Santa Cruz issued a statement saying that campus entrances were briefly blocked in the morning by demonstrators, prompting the school to switch to remote instruction for the day. The University of California has filed its own unfair labor practice complaint with the state Public Employee Relations Board, asking the state to order a halt to the strike.
The Yale walkout and the UC Santa Cruz strike highlight the growing tensions on U.S. college campuses as students and academic workers become increasingly vocal in their support for Palestinians and their criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza. As the conflict continues, it remains to be seen how universities will navigate the complex issues of free speech, academic freedom, and the potential for violence and disruption on their campuses.
