On Friday, May 24, four graduating student organizers at the University of Chicago received emails from the University informing them that their degrees would not be conferred at graduation. This prevents students from graduating with their diplomas despite having completed all degree requirements.
An email sent by Associate Dean of Students Jeremy Inabinet to the four affected students claims that Dean Inabinet “recently received multiple complaints regarding the quad encampment that report issues related to disruptive conduct” and that each student had “been identified as an individual that may have been involved in the matter.” Dean Inabinet goes on to say that students “will be involved in the Disciplinary System for Disruptive Conduct,” and as a result “degree[s] will not be conferred until the resolution of this matter occurs.” Students are, however, “allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies and any Senior Week activities,” though these “privileges may be impacted” by “further reports of misconduct.”
This notice was sent just eight days before graduation ceremonies, scheduled for June 1, and two weeks after the Gaza Solidarity Encampment was raided by UCPD, one of the largest private police forces in the nation. Months earlier, the university also arrested these four students, alongside 22 fellow students and two faculty witnesses, for a sit-in of the admissions lobby.
“Of course this is disappointing and frustrating for me personally,” says fourth-year Youssef Hasweh, a Palestinian and one of the students affected by the University’s disciplinary action. “But this setback is nothing compared to the genocide and scholasticide that Palestinians are facing every day in Gaza. There will be no graduations in Gaza this year because every single university has been destroyed by the IOF. No degree is worth 40,000 lives.”
