3 Penn student protesters involved in pro-Palestinian encampments were denied entrance to Arts & Sciences commencement
The students were involved with a pro-Palestinian encampment and were on mandatory temporary leaves of absence.
Three University of Pennsylvania students who were placed on mandatory temporary leaves of absence because of their involvement in the pro-Palestinian encampment were not allowed to enter a commencement ceremony Sunday night, according to multiple students there.
One of the students, Mira Sydow, 22, majoring in urban studies and English, said she was with another student who is also on a leave of absence when she was approached by an administrator.
”I was really honestly just confused,” she said.
Sydow said she had been in negotiations with the provost and university president and believed she would be allowed to attend.
The students were attempting to get into the commencement ceremony for Penn’s College of Arts and Sciences held at Franklin Field.
Penn in a statement said the cases of the three graduating seniors who have been placed on mandatory temporary leave have been expedited through the disciplinary process and that letters notifying the students of the findings were delivered on Friday.
“Because the students have not yet responded to the letters to resolve their cases, they remain on mandatory temporary leave and were not permitted to participate in the College of Arts and Sciences graduation ceremony this evening,” the university said.
Sydow entered through security without incident, she said. Her parents were already inside Franklin Field. She presented the “grad pass” seniors are given as a requirement to attend the ceremony.
But instead of being allowed to walk, she and two other students were escorted out of the line. The restriction, she said, appears to be keeping the three of them from walking with their classmates but not delaying their diplomas.
Late Sunday night a university spokesperson said the students’ diplomas are being withheld until their cases are resolved.
The ban applies to Monday’s larger commencement, too, she said, unless the provost makes a change. Penn’s main commencement ceremony for all 6,000 graduates is scheduled to be held in the morning at Franklin Field.
According to another student protester who did not want to be identified out of fear of retaliation, the three seniors arrived at Sunday’s graduation ceremony wearing keffiyehs, a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.
Freedom School Palestine put out a call asking protesters to show up at Penn in support of the students. About 20 protesters came, the student said.
More than a couple dozen Penn and Philly police officers, along with private security, were in the area between Franklin Field and the Palestra and 33rd and Spruce Streets.
Meanwhile, inside Franklin Field, the commencement ceremony, which started at 6:30 p.m., continued on as planned without disruption for about three hours.
The dustup outside the ceremony comes nine days after Penn police, assisted by city police, dismantled the encampment that had been set up on the College Green for just over two weeks and arrested 33 people, and two days after it thwarted an attempt by protesters to take over a university building and arrested 19 more.
The College of Arts and Sciences is home to some of the students and professors who have been involved in the protests. In March, Marc Rowan — the billionaire donor who led the effort to oust former Penn leaders over their response to antisemitism — publicly criticized the school.
The school has 27 departments including a few that last September sponsored sessions of the Palestine Writes Literary Festival, which critics attacked for including speakers with a history of making antisemitic comments but supporters defended as a celebration of Palestinian art.
Rowan’s remarks brought rebukes from some, including the Penn chapter of the American Association of University Professors.