MIT's student body president was banned from commencement after giving a pro-Palestinian speech. Here's what she said.
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Vemuri was scheduled to be marshal at the undergraduate commencement but received an email from MIT Chancellor Melissa Nobles Friday morning that said she could not attend the event and that she and her family were banned from campus for most of the day,
'Participation in Commencement activities is a privilege,' Nobles wrote in the email, which was obtained by the Globe. 'You deliberately and repeatedly misled Commencement organizers. While we acknowledge your right to free expression, your decision to lead a protest from the stage, disrupting an important institute ceremony, was a violation of MIT's time, place and manner rules for campus expression.'
In an email, Vemuri disputed that her speech amounted to 'a protest from the stage' and that the decision to ban her from campus was 'an overreach.'
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MIT was among several Boston-area colleges where students built encampments on their campuses in 2024 to protest the Israel-Hamas war. The encampment
During her speech Thursday, Vemuri praised her classmates, telling them 'You showed the world that MIT wants a free Palestine.'
'You called for a permanent cease fire in Gaza, and you stood in solidarity with the pro-Palestine activists on campus. You faced threats, intimidation, and suppression coming from all directions, especially your own university officials, but you prevailed because the MIT community that I know would never tolerate a genocide.
'Right now, while we prepare to graduate and move forward with our lives, there are no universities left in Gaza,' she continued as a mix of cheers and shouts came from the crowd, some waving Palestinian flags. 'We are watching Israel try to wipe Palestine off the face of the earth, and it is a shame that MIT is a part of it.'
Vemuri said that 'Israeli occupation forces are the only foreign military that MIT has research ties with.'
'This means that Israel's assault on the Palestinian people is not only aided and abetted by our country, but our school. As scientists, engineers, academics, and leaders, we have a commitment to support life, support aid efforts, and call for an arms embargo, and keep demanding, now as alumni, that MIT cuts the ties.'
After Vemuri's speech, university president Sally Kornbluth stepped to the podium to speak to the graduates but paused as the cheers and shouts continued.
'OK, listen folks, at MIT we value freedom of expression, but today's about the graduates,' she said. 'There is a time and a place to express yourselves, and you will have many, many years to do it. Let's talk today about our graduates.'
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In a statement Friday, an MIT spokesperson said the institute 'supports free expression but stands by its decision' to bar Vemuri from campus and said the speech she gave 'was not the one that was provided by the speaker in advance.'
'While that individual had a scheduled role at today's Undergraduate Degree Ceremony, she was notified that she would not be permitted at today's events,' the statement said.
At Friday's commencement, some students said they disagreed with the university's reaction to Vemuri's speech and said she should have been allowed to attend the event.
Emma Zhu, of Westchester, N.Y., who graduated with a combined degree in computer science and economics, said she supported the right to protest at the ceremony.
'At the end of the day, she should have the right to say her opinions, and this is probably her biggest moment to be able to express what she feels to the world,' Zhu said. 'So I feel like she should have been able to walk. I feel like she should have been able to say what she wants to say, even if it is a bit inflammatory.'
On Friday, chants of 'Let Megha walk!' could be heard as Nobles
gave a speech.
Luc Picard, who graduated Friday, said that the interruptions at the undergraduate ceremony caught him off guard, but that he understands the need to protest on a large stage.
'In all honesty I was surprised today because I didn't know she was not allowed to walk,' he said. 'I'm not particularly bothered by the interruption of the ceremony, I don't blame other people for being so. I'm generally more or less OK with it.'
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In an interview with the Globe a few weeks before MIT's commencement ceremonies, Vemuri said she was hoping to 'optimize my impact' with her speech.
'I'm nervous because I want to make the absolute most of this opportunity,' she said at the time. 'It's a once in a lifetime thing ... it's literally some of the greatest minds of our generation who are going to be listening to me, right?'
Vemuri, who said she was part of the MIT student group Coalition Against Apartheid, said she was 'hoping to focus my speech on how proud I am of the graduating students of conscience for standing on the right side of history.'
'The biggest thing I really want to show to the class is that the power is in our hands,' she said.
Brooke Hauser of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Maria Probert contributed to this report.
Nick Stoico can be reached at
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