The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) banned Megha Vemuri, the Class of 2025 president and valedictorian, from attending her own graduation ceremony on Friday. The ban followed a commencement speech Vemuri gave at another ceremony on Thursday in which she condemned MIT’s ties to the Israeli military and denounced the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Vemuri was notified on the eve of her graduation, via an official email from MIT Chancellor Melissa Nobles, that she was prohibited from attending the commencement ceremony and barred from campus until 4:00 p.m. the same day. The message, which did not specify a reason for the ban, also stated that her graduation tickets had been deactivated.

According to MIT spokesperson Kimberly Allen, the decision was made because Vemuri’s speech at Thursday’s OneMIT commencement “did not align with the pre-approved content” and that she had “intentionally and repeatedly misled Commencement organizers and incited a protest from the stage, thereby disrupting a significant Institute event.”

Chancellor Nobles further stated in her email that while MIT acknowledges the right to free expression, Vemuri’s decision to “lead a protest from the stage” was a violation of MIT’s time, place, and manner rules for campus expression.

In a statement, Vemuri contested this characterization, stating defiantly, “I see no need for me to walk across the stage of an institution that is complicit in this genocide.” She added that she was “disappointed” in MIT’s response, saying school officials “massively overstepped their roles to punish me without merit or due process.”

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Vemuri’s remarks at the OneMIT commencement event, where she wore a red keffiyeh in solidarity with Palestinians, quickly went viral. She began by praising her classmates for their courage in standing up for justice:

You showed the world that MIT wants a free Palestine. Last spring, MIT’s undergraduate body and Graduate Student Union voted overwhelmingly to cut ties with the genocidal Israeli military. You called for a permanent ceasefire 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.

Vemuri then directly criticized MIT’s ongoing research ties with the Israeli military:

Israel is the only foreign military with which MIT has active research ties. Right now, while we prepare to graduate and move forward with our lives, there are no universities left in Gaza.

Her speech received a mixed response from the audience, with some chanting “Free, Free Palestine!” and waving flags, while others remained silent.

MIT’s financial and research connections to the Israeli military are well known. Since 2015, MIT has received over $11 million in research funding from Israel’s Ministry of Defense, with more than $1.6 million allocated in 2023 alone. These funds have supported projects with clear military applications, including autonomous robotic swarms, pursuit-evasion algorithms, underwater monitoring, and quantum fiber magnetometry. As of March 2024, at least two of these projects were up for renewal.

In addition, MIT’s relationship with the Israeli military-industrial complex extends to special programs such as the Lockheed Martin Seed Fund, and Elbit Systems—a major Israeli arms manufacturer—remains a member of MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program. Elbit is known for producing many of the bombs used in the destruction of universities in Gaza.

Vemuri is an Indian-American student originally from Alpharetta, Georgia. She graduated from MIT with a degree that combines computer science, neuroscience and linguistics, and served as class president in 2025. Vemuri has been active in advocacy and research, leading the Written Revolution initiative and contributing to work at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. Her academic and extracurricular achievements made her a prominent figure on campus and a respected voice among her peers.

The decision to ban Vemuri from her own graduation has been condemned by student groups and outside organizations. The MIT Coalition Against Apartheid stated:

The attack on Megha exposes the persistent silencing of pro-Palestine voices and the mounting pressure on MIT to end all military contracts with the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD).

The coalition also highlighted the hypocrisy of MIT’s leadership, noting that President Sally Kornbluth had just declared, “At MIT, we value freedom of expression,” before Vemuri was excluded for exercising that very right.

The Palestinian Youth Movement and other advocacy groups have also denounced MIT’s actions as part of a broader crackdown on dissent and free speech related to Palestine and opposition to the US-backed genocide in Gaza.

Vemuri’s banning has taken place alongside similar actions at other elite universities. At New York University, Logan Rozos had his diploma withheld pending disciplinary action after he referred to the genocide in Gaza and denounced “the atrocities currently happening in Palestine” in a commencement speech. At George Washington University, graduate student Cecilia Culver was barred from campus and university events after she urged others to not donate to the school and issued multiple requests for divestment from companies doing business with Israel during her speech.

These measures are part of a broader attack on speech by university administrations by suppressing pro-Palestinian activism and dissent, often under pressure from donors, pro-Israel advocacy groups, the Trump administration and other supporters of the Gaza genocide within the US political establishment.

The crackdown on Vemuri at MIT and other student activists during the university graduation period is taking place within the context of escalating attacks on First Amendment rights, specifically targeting vocal support for Palestinian rights and opposition to the ethnic cleansing operations of the Zionist state in Gaza.

Under the Trump administration—and the Biden administration before it—a campaign has been mounted that equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism and criminalizes campus protest activity for purportedly violating the rights of Jewish students. This lie continues to be spread by the Democrats and Republicans and the corporate media, even though large numbers of Jewish students have taken part in the protests on campuses across the US.

In this witch-hunting atmosphere, students such as Mahmoud Khalil—a leading voice against the Gaza genocide at Columbia University—have been arrested and detained against their fundamental rights for their activism. Cornell University graduate student Momodou Taal was compelled to leave the US under threat of kidnapping and deportation in retaliation for filing a free speech suit against the Trump administration.

Meanwhile, university administrations have increasingly adopted restrictive “time, place, and manner” policies that are aimed at stifling speech and making protest illegal on campus.

The climate of repression has intensified as Israel’s assault on Gaza has assumed monstrous proportions, with over 53,000 Palestinians killed—most of whom are women and children—and the plans to forcibly remove the population entirely from the strip being openly acknowledged by the Netanyahu and Trump administrations.

The termination of billions in federal funding to Harvard University by the White House is part of this drive and aimed at intimidating university administrations. Meanwhile, wealthy donors and other university financial supporters want to ensure that lucrative research and relationships with the Israeli state and US military contractors are protected.