Claire Shipman, the acting president of Columbia University, was met with boos and chants of “Free Mahmoud” as she prepared to speak at the university’s graduation ceremony on Tuesday.
“I know you feel some amount of frustration with me, and I know you feel it with the administration,” she told the graduates.
“I know that we have a strong, strong tradition of free speech at this university. And I am always open to feedback.”
Columbia has been at the center of the nationwide pro-Palestinian protest movement on college campuses. The Trump administration recently pulled $400 million in research grants and other federal funding over the university’s handling of the protests.
To reinstate the suspended funding, the government outlined mandatory changes to Columbia’s academic and campus security policies.
The university stated it intended to move forward with some of the recommended reforms.
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Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student who helped lead the campus protests, has become one of the movement’s most prominent figures. He was taken into custody earlier this year during the administration’s crackdown on foreign students it accuses of agitating on U.S. campuses.
Khalil was arrested in front of his pregnant wife and is currently being held at a detention facility in Louisiana.
His case is now moving along two legal tracks. In federal court, his attorneys are seeking his release. In immigration court, however, a judge has already ordered his deportation. His legal team is working to overturn that decision.
