MIT taught her well. That is why Megha Vemuri could speak for others

Indian Express

3 days ago

Like many students around the United States, those studying at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are proud bearers of the American tradition of the class ring. Redesigned every year, these signet-style rings bear the insignia of the school: At MIT, it is a beaver, nicknamed the 'the brass rat', that is engraved on the flat top, with one side of the bezel featuring a rendition of the Boston skyline and the other side, a view of the Cambridge — specifically the university campus — skyline. Before they graduate, MIT students wear the ring in a way that the beaver and the Boston side of the bezel face them. At their commencement, the new graduates are asked to 'flip the brass rat' — with the beaver now facing away from them, symbolising their entry into the wider world, and the campus skyline, which now faces the students, reminding them of the legacy, and its accompanying responsibilities, that they bear.
At the commencement ceremony for the Class of 2025 on Thursday, yet another cohort of MIT students flipped the brass rat and prepared to step into the rest of their lives, carrying with them both knowledge and a sense of their history, forever intertwined with the history of their alma mater, that binds them as a community. In the now-viral speech delivered by Megha Vemuri, the president of the Class of 2025, she refers to this precious load when she speaks to her fellow graduates about the 'privilege of access…to a place like this (MIT)' and the 'immeasurable responsibility' they enter the world with. Remove the references to the ongoing destruction of Gaza, the suffering of the Palestinians and the silence or complicity of institutions like the one she is graduating from, Vemuri's address is no different from those delivered at commencement and graduation ceremonies at other schools, across the US and in other countries, at other times. In their four years of undergraduate studies, MIT's students, like students elsewhere, have only been learning about and preparing for their responsibilities in the world beyond the campus walls. They must now, Vemuri says, actually take on the burden.
The uproar that has followed Vemuri's speech, with MIT barring her from her graduation ceremony the next day and commentators and pundits decrying her attempt to 'hijack' the event to make it about her 'personal beliefs', follow the same absurd script that has played out in university campuses across the US for almost 20 months now. A student exercised her right to free speech — without calling for violence or hate against any community — in order to point to a great injustice in the world where she and her fellow students are expected to play their roles. That was all. In her speech, Vemuri notes, 'As scientists, engineers, academics and leaders, we have a commitment to support life.' The university's actions, and the many instances of social media denunciation of her words, then beg the question: Are MIT's students expected to demonstrate this commitment only to certain kinds of lives? If yes, then who are the people that are to be excluded from this world of responsibility that Vemuri and her cohort enter? That Vemuri understands the double standards that prop up such a view of the world is clear when she notes, 'While we graduate and move on with our lives, there are no universities left in Gaza.'
Vemuri is not alone in showing a wider regard, a greater range for her compassion, than appears to be allowed to students, and she's not the first to be penalised for it. In Trump's America, foreign students have already been put on notice, their visas — their futures — threatened for the slightest straying from the strict lines drawn by the powers-that-be. Vemuri, of course, doesn't have to worry about a visa, being an American citizen, but she might, as several have pointed out, have some cause for concern when it comes to her prospects. Is an independent-minded, outspoken person — a brown-skinned woman, no less — considered good employee material in the US today? Open espousal of the Palestinian cause has reportedly already led to several firings, including at major companies like Microsoft and Google. In any case, in an America where democratic norms are under assault from an administration that brooks no dissent, it is scary to be any kind of minority, and not just one that's on a visa.
But that is the remarkable thing about Vemuri: She said what she wanted to say right when she lost whatever protection life as a student offered. Politically active students always tend to be condescended to, told that they don't know how the real world works, but Vemuri, at least, appears to be more than prepared for it. With or without the brass rat.
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