Throughout The New School’s 88th Annual Commencement Ceremonies celebrations, as the graduates were honored for their achievements at the university, students, performers, and commencement speakers openly expressed their support for Palestine, Israel, and the Gaza Solidarity Encampments at TNS. The ceremony occurred last Friday at Louis Armstrong Stadium, celebrating nearly 3000 graduating students.
The undergraduate ceremony began at 10:00 a.m., with resounding boos from the crowd as Interim President Donna Shalala walked past rows of seated students up to the stage. As Shalala walked through the crowd smiling, she was followed by the Chair of the Board of Trustees, Linda Rappaport, as well as program heads and professors from the university. The graduate commencement, which started later in the day at 2:30 p.m, mirrored this entrance, but instead of booing, graduates used whistles to disrupt Shalala’s entrance.
Once Shalala was announced to give her commencement address, graduates at both ceremonies booed or blew whistles as she addressed the crowd. Shalala began her speech by asking the graduates to stand up and thank their parents in the crowd. As the booing continued, she wrapped up her speech and returned to her seat on the stage.
Cece Deming-Bernstein, the student speaker at the undergraduate ceremony, took to the stage for the Student Commencement Address. In Deming-Bernstein’s address, she spoke about how New School students are taught to break down and create new categories as they work to change old systems. “To break down categories means to recognize what is happening in many countries around the world right now— Palestine, Sudan, Congo, and many more,” she said.
Deming-Bernstein specifically praised the Gaza Solidarity Encampments and stated that students participating in them exemplify the idea of breaking down old categories.
“We must continue bringing this energy into the future we want…Let’s continue to apply those two categories, the categories of identity and categories of history that we’ve been told to never truly investigate, or despite being told to investigate and finding the truth, we students are punished for acting upon it,” she said, “This is when we know we are onto something.”
Deming-Bernstein finished off by stating, “Keep fighting, free Palestine, and congrats to the class of 2024!” before walking back to her seat on stage. Deming-Bernstein’s address was followed by a musical performance by the Gary Jones III Quintet.
During their performance, one member of the band displayed a yellow ribbon on his phone, a symbol commonly associated with the call for the return of the hostages held by Hamas. As the performance ended, another band member pulled out a guitar strap with the Israeli flag.
After the performance, Sinéad Burke, an Irish writer, academic, and disability activist, was presented with an honorary degree and invited to make a speech. Burke started off by thanking Shalala, Provost Renée White, and the Board of Trustees for the invitation to speak at the commencement.
“I also want to thank a number of people and collectives who have furthered my education and understanding of the realities of capitalist policies and processes at this school. These were students inside and outside of recent encampments…I am enormously grateful for your time, your vulnerability, and [am] genuinely moved by your collective vision for change,” Burke said.
During her speech, Burke stated that The New School’s Students for Justice in Palestine (TNS SJP) had asked her to emphasize their three demands. She stated that TNS SJP demands for divestment from any companies funding the militarization and violence in Gaza. Burke then followed this by pointing to her own alma mater, Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, as an example of a higher education institution that is pursuing complete divestment after their students held an encampment for about 5 days.
Burke followed this by reiterating two other demands from the students — that the university remove police presence from campus, and that the community not lose focus on Rafah, Gaza, and the Palestinian people.
This final message led to an eruption of chants from across the stadium, as individuals shouted “Free the hostages!” and for Burke to get off the stage. A graduating student who was seated on the court space in front of the stage stood up and yelled at Burke, stating that they had family members who had died in Israel, and telling her, “You are making me cry at my own graduation.”
As the student continued, three attendees seated higher in the stands held up an Israeli flag and joined those yelling at Burke. The attendees seen holding the flag were escorted out shortly after for causing a disruption to the ceremony. Following this, another student stood up and shouted , “I just want to graduate,” before sitting back down and crying as a TNS staff member comforted her.
Burke momentarily paused her speech and was briefly joined by Shalala at the podium as they waited for the crowd to settle, but continued her address shortly after the disruptions were quelled.
Once the speech had ended, graduating students filed out of their rows and walked across the stage as their names were announced. Many students held Palestinian flags, wore keffiyehs, and had posters or decorated caps displaying support for Palestine and echoing the demand for divestment.
Once the undergraduate ceremony was over, Shalala stood at the podium to address the crowd and TNS mascot, Gnarls the Narwhal, ran onto the stage handing her a scroll with a message of congratulations for the graduating class. After Shalala read the message aloud, the mascot stepped off the stage.
At the far side of the stadium, a different person in a stolen Gnarls costume entered the stadium. The second Gnarls yelled “Free Palestine!” The imposter Gnarls was then escorted out of the stadium by two security guards.
A previous version of this article originally stated that the university appointed Gnarls was the mascot who chanted “Free Palestine!” and was escorted out by security. The correct person who chanted and was escorted out was a person posing as the real Gnarls.