"MIT supports free expression but stands by its decision"
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) barred its class president from the graduation ceremony after her pro-Palestinian speech.
Megha Vemuri, who was elected to represent the class of 2025, delivered the remarks during the OneMIT Commencement Ceremony.
She criticised MIT’s links to Israeli institutions and accused the university of supporting genocide in Gaza.
Her speech had not been approved in advance.
MIT spokesperson Kimberly Allen said: “MIT supports free expression but stands by its decision, which was in response to the individual deliberately and repeatedly misleading Commencement organisers and leading a protest from the stage, disrupting an important Institute ceremony.”
Megha, a double major in computation and cognition and linguistics, accused the university of “complicity in genocide”.
Her speech praised student protests and urged MIT to cut ties with the Israeli military.
She said: “You showed the world that MIT wants a free Palestine.
“Right now, while we prepare to graduate and move forward with our lives, there are no universities left in Gaza.
“We are watching Israel try to wipe out Palestine off the face of the earth, and it is a shame that MIT is a part of it.”
The speech received cheers from some classmates, and several students raised Palestinian flags.
It is reported that MIT received around $2.8 million in funding from Israeli entities between 2020 and 2024.
Megha Vemuri referenced a student vote earlier in 2025 that called on the university to end institutional ties with Israel.
“You prevailed because the MIT community that I know would never tolerate a genocide.”
She then asked graduates to symbolically turn their class rings, engraved with the university mascot Tim the Beaver, so the beaver faced outwards.
“This is a world that we will be entering with an immeasurable responsibility… to stop [MIT’s] complicity in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.”
After the event, MIT told Megha that she was not allowed to attend the undergraduate commencement on May 30.
However, she will still receive her diploma by mail.
Megha said she had no regrets about her speech:
“I see no need for me to walk across the stage of an institution that is complicit in this genocide.”
She called the disciplinary response “a massive overstep” and claimed she had been punished “without merit or due process”.
MIT President Sally Kornbluth, who spoke after Megha at Thursday’s event, did not mention the incident.
“At MIT, we believe in freedom of expression. But today is about the graduates,” she said, as some in the crowd began chanting.
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