Several Columbia University students spoke out to Fox News Digital on Monday after administrators announced they would be canceling the school’s main commencement ceremony. Security concerns in the wake of raucous anti-Israel protests were top of mind in making the decision, a university official told Fox News.
One graduating senior, who also testified before the House Education & Workforce Committee about the antisemitic agitators, said she did so in order to give voice to those in the community who all have the same concerns as well as a way to urge Columbia administrators to act.
“I think that [Columbia] has the potential to be the amazing institution that I know that it is,” Yola Ashkenazie told Fox News Digital.
Ashkenazie said she was disappointed that the main commencement ceremony was canceled, saying graduation festivities are as much for the students as they are for the parents and families who work hard to ensure their children can attend a venerated institution like Columbia.
ANTI-ISRAEL UNREST FORCES COLUMBIA TO CANCEL LARGE COMMENCEMENT AS PROTESTS CONTINUE
Anti-Israel protesters rally outside Columbia University in New York City on April 30, 2024. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)
“So, it’s really sad that we don’t get to properly mark this moment with them and with all of our friends across all the different schools,” she said.
Ashkenazie said administrators had at first acted like the anti-Israel protests were peaceful demonstrations, but she added that if that were true, she still would be attending graduation.
“[W]hy would they cancel commencement if they thought that they were entirely peaceful? It doesn’t really make sense. And the administration can’t keep their story straight.”
Ashkenazie also told Fox News she had been affected by antisemitic sentiment on campus long before the protests began in April.
“So, I have been vocal [in] speaking out against antisemitism on campus since Oct. 7th, and the students sort of pegged me as that,” she…
