University Withholds Student’s Diploma, in Latest Flashpoint over Free Speech on U.S. Campuses

(This article was first published on May 16 and updated on May 17 at 8:34 a.m. EST)

On May 14, Logan Rozos, a student at New York University (NYU), gave a brief but powerful speech during the graduation ceremony of Gallatin, a liberal arts school within NYU. In his two-and-a-half-minute presentation (transcribed by World-Outlook from the video of Rozos’ speech, and published below), the student condemned the U.S.-backed Israeli war on the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Rozos was picked by his fellow students to address the gathering on their behalf.

Rozos’ remarks repeatedly sparked loud applause, cheers, and standing ovations from most in the audience of hundreds, as well as scattered jeers and boos by some individuals present at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan, where the ceremony was held.

The reaction reflects the widespread opposition to the Israeli war, and to U.S. complicity in the bloodshed, among NYU students. This sentiment is also reflected on campuses across the United States, as last year’s large student protests showed.

NYU immediately announced it is withholding the student’s diploma as it pursues disciplinary actions against him. That means Rozos would not officially graduate until the matter is resolved. John Beckman, an NYU spokesman, said in a May 14 statement the university “strongly denounces” Rozos’ decision to express “his personal and one-sided political views.”

The NYU move to discipline the student speaker is the latest flashpoint between free speech principles and punishment for pro-Palestinian advocacy on U.S. college campuses. It comes as universities across the country brace this commencement season for pro-Palestinian speeches and displays from students.

Following Rozos’ remarks, pro-Palestinian voices on social media praised the speech, while pro-Israel voices condemned it.

“We commend Logan for using this opportunity to demand an end to the bloodshed in Gaza,” said Afaf Nasher, executive director of CAIR-NY, a Muslim civil rights organization. “We demand that NYU formally release Logan’s diploma, which he rightfully earned, and suspend any disciplinary proceedings against him.”

Pro-Palestinian activism has diminished on U.S. campuses this year, largely due to strict enforcement of disciplinary rules, reinforced by anti-democratic measures by the Trump administration. NYU has been especially forceful in confronting such activism, including by barring more than two dozen law students from entering some university buildings after they held a sit-in outside President Linda Mills’s office in March, the student newspaper reported.

As World-Outlook noted in February in Trump’s 2^nd Term: One-Man Rule & the Danger of Incipient Fascism (II), “Trump has launched a dangerous assault on democratic rights, under the guise of ‘combating antisemitism,’ by issuing another executive order that can target any opponent of Israel’s war on the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, he makes excuses for the overt antisemitism of his most reactionary supporters.”

In Columbia University Cracks Down on Pro-Palestinian Advocacy, World-Outlook also noted last month that, under this pretense, “the White House is investigating some 60 universities, aiming to accomplish there what it has already achieved at Columbia.” Simultaneously, the Trump administration is carrying out a witch-hunt of international students and faculty who have spoken out against the Israeli war in Gaza.

Israel launched its war in Gaza in response to the grotesque October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks. After 15 months of unrelenting bombardments and ground offensive, a ceasefire went into effect in Gaza on January 19. But it was short lived (even though a bit longer than the first four-day truce in November 2023). It effectively ended on March 18, when Israel launched airstrikes on Gaza, and later a new ground offensive.

According to Al-Jazeera, the Israeli war has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, injured nearly 120,000, and reduced much of the territory to rubble. More than 75% of Gaza’s population of 2.1 million people have been displaced, many multiple times. Israel is now occupying  about 50% of Gaza’s territory, according to PBS, and is razing to the ground large sections of the southern city of Rafah to create a “buffer zone” along the Gaza-Egypt border. Israeli blockades of most food and medical aid for Gaza have intensified conditions of starvation and widespread disease.

World-Outlook is publishing Rozos’ remarks below for the information of our readers. We also encourage our readers to sign and circulate the petition demanding that NYU give Logan his diploma.

— World-Outlook editors

*

‘I condemn this genocide, and complicity in genocide’

By Logan Rozos

Greetings Gallatin faculty and staff, esteemed alumni speaker, fellow graduates, and loved ones.

Trying to find my family in the crowd… There they are!

I’ve been freaking out about this speech, honestly, and as I search my heart today, in addressing you all, my moral and political commitments guide me to say that the only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to such a large group is a recognition of the atrocities happening in Palestine.

[Loud applause, cheers, and standing ovation from most in the audience]

I want to say that the genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars, and has been live streamed to our phones for the past 18 months. And I do not wish to speak only to my own politics today but to speak for all people of conscience, all people who feel the moral injury of this atrocity, and I want to say that I condemn this genocide, and complicity in this genocide.

[Loud applause, cheers, and standing ovation from most in the audience]

[Scattered jeers]

Thank you to the class of 2025, and congratulations.

[Loud applause, cheers, and standing ovation from most in the audience!]

If you appreciate this article, subscribe to World-Outlook (for free) by clicking on the link below.

Type your email in the box below and click on “SUBSCRIBE.” You will receive a notification in your in-box on which you will have to click to confirm your subscription.