A celebration of some 6,800 undergraduate students earning their degrees featured a protest at its start, but ultimately carried on at McGuirk Alumni Stadium without much incident.
Students, faculty and families gathered at the field for commencement, albeit one without a keynote speaker.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead had been slated to speak, but withdrew earlier this month. He cited a crackdown on a pro-Palestinian encampment on May 7 that ended with 134 arrested, including around 70 UMass Amherst students and several faculty members.
The demonstration attracted national attention, with the fallout still visible during commencement.
Chants of “resign” could be heard in the stands as dozens of students got up and headed for the exit as Chancellor Javier Reyes approached the podium.
Reyes and other officials have been under scrutiny by some members of the campus community following a decision to have officers break up what university leadership has referred to as “a fortified encampment” near the student union building.
The walkout led to a pause in the ceremony that lasted a few minutes before Reyes began to speak, touching on student advocacy during his speech.
“I'm heartened by the passion of this generation and your desire to actively work towards creating a better world,” he said. “Your advocacy challenges us to explore new perspectives and new understandings. This speaks to the very purpose of higher education and the important role that it has advancing knowledge and serving the common good.”
He said that as a public university, UMass Amherst remains “deeply committed to upholding the tenets of academic freedom and free speech,” while supporting the rights of students, faculty and staff to quote “explore challenging ideas and advocate for a point of view.”
“We also recognize that while we may not always agree, this university must be a place where students and faculty are able to pursue opportunities and make choices that work for them, even if they're not the choice that we would make for ourselves,” he continued.
From there, the commencement continued without issue, with other speakers as well as honored alumni.
Among them was Jason Fettig, a former director of the United States Marine Band and UMass alumnus who received an honorary degree, and fellow alum Denise Hurst, a longtime Springfield School Committee member, who was given a “Distinguished Achievement Award.”
Meantime, a smaller gathering came together outside of McGuirk.
Across the road in a small, wooded area, students and faculty who had left the ceremony gathered to both continue speaking out about the war in Gaza and the university’s actions, as well as hand out homemade diplomas.
Among them was community member Leyla Moushabeck.
“Many years from now, UMass will no doubt claim and celebrate your bravery and your moral leadership,” she said. “But I will take the liberty to speak for the community and say that we claim you now - we celebrate you now, we are proud of what you have achieved and of all the ways you will continue to fight.”
Since the protests, leadership has maintained that while student advocacy and speech is protected, the encampment on May 7 violated the university’s land use policy.
The violation and resulting police activity was the subject of a recent faculty senate meeting –involving multiple members questioning the chancellor on both the policy and the arrests.
