New York University (NYU) has come under fire after it reportedly withheld the diploma of Logan Rozos, a graduating student who used his commencement address to condemn Israel’s war on Gaza and the United States’ role in supporting it. The move has sparked fresh concerns over a widening crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism and free speech on US campuses.
Rozos, a student at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualised Study, delivered a powerful speech on Wednesday that drew loud applause from fellow graduates. He began by acknowledging what he described as the only appropriate message for such a moment: “A recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine.” He went on to denounce the “genocide supported politically and militarily by the United States, paid for by our tax dollars and livestreamed to our phones for the past 18 months.”
He emphasised that he wasn’t merely voicing personal beliefs but speaking “for all people of conscience” who feel the moral weight of the violence unfolding in Gaza.
NYU’s response was swift. The university issued a statement accusing Rozos of violating school policies and announced it would withhold his diploma pending disciplinary review. The university also deleted Rozos’s student profile from its official website — a move many critics interpret as an act of institutional retaliation.
This incident follows a broader pattern at NYU, where administrators have come under repeated criticism for suppressing Palestinian advocacy. Over the past year, the university has ordered police to clear student encampments protesting Israel’s military actions in Gaza, leading to arrests of both students and faculty. NYU has also amended its code of conduct to brand certain political terms — including “Zionist” — as discriminatory, a move that scholars argue blurs the line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
In December 2024, two tenured professors were declared “persona non grata” after participating in a sit-in calling for NYU to divest from companies linked to Israel’s military campaign. A few months later, the university cancelled a guest lecture by Dr Joanne Liu, a former president of Doctors Without Borders, over concerns her material on Gaza civilian casualties could be “anti-Semitic”.
Rozos’s speech, which echoes international legal experts and genocide scholars who argue that Israel’s actions meet the definition of genocide, has struck a chord among rights advocates. But his treatment by NYU has prompted widespread outrage, with academic freedom groups warning that the university is abandoning its commitment to free expression in favour of appeasing external political and donor pressure.