CAMBRIDGE — Harvard faculty members voted overwhelmingly to permit 13 student protesters involved in the university’s Palestine solidarity encampment to graduate on Thursday, May 23.
“Yesterday, Monday, May 20 at 4:30 p.m., scores of faculty members joined a meeting which is normally only a formality,” wrote Harvard Medical School Instructor Lara Jirmanus, who issued a statement on behalf of Harvard University’s faculty. “Harvard professors overwhelmingly voted to include the names of 13 peaceful student protestors who had been informed they would have to wait as many as three semesters to receive their degrees, in a striking rebuke to administrators who had pushed for more severe sanctions. Two other students were not discussed, as they were slated to graduate after the 2024 fall semester.”
Jirmanus added that the Harvard Board of Overseers and the Harvard Corporation, the university’s top governing boards, may need to approve the final list of graduating students.
“Although this process is typically a rubber stamp, it is unclear whether the boards would attempt to override the faculty decision,” Jirmanus said. “Twenty students remain on probation, whose cases were not eligible for evaluation during the degree conferral meeting.”
In addition to the vote, more than 350 Harvard professors and over 130 staff members signed a letter within the past 24 hours, urging the university to allow “students, who engaged in peaceful protest, be allowed to graduate with the degrees they have earned.”
