Long Island GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito wants to honor his constituents who are graduating from Columbia University this year with a separate commencement ceremony after the Ivy League school made the “appalling” decision to cancel the official celebration.
D’Esposito (R-NY), who reps part of central and southern Nassau County, told university President Minouche Shafik in a Wednesday letter he wanted to give students in his district “the graduation ceremony they deserve.”
“For some, graduating from higher education is the pinnacle of their life thus far — an important milestone celebrated by family, friends and loved ones,” he said.
“These students have worked extremely hard, invested a tremendous amount of money, and succeeded in meeting requirements to proudly graduate,” D’Esposito wrote in reference to the $89,000 price of annual tuition at the Morningside Heights school.
D’Esposito demanded a full list of Columbia students from his Fourth Congressional District, so he could “work with community leaders and partners in government” to let them accept their diplomas with pomp and circumstance.
“Leadership at Columbia has failed these students,” he added. “We won’t fail them as well.”
On Monday, the university axed its school-wide commencement festivities for “smaller-scale, school-based celebrations” after weeks of anti-Israel protests that took over the Morningside Heights campus.
Hamas-endorsed demonstrators erected a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” in the final weeks of the spring semester, leaving Jewish students and faculty to fear for their safety while in-person classes were scrapped.
Protesters called for the university to divest from Israel, while harassing and intimidating fellow students with antisemitic slurs and chants.
The commencement’s cancellation was widely criticized, as Columbia’s class of 2024 also had their high school graduations disrupted by lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic four years earlier.
“The actions of the few — especially those not even affiliated with schools — who continue to disrupt and hijack events should not unfairly impact students who have earned the right to walk across the stage and receive their diploma,” said Fabien Levy, a spokesman for New York City Mayor Eric Adams, in a Monday statement.
“It was beyond control that these students had their high school graduations taken away due to COVID, but it is infuriating that protestors are the ones now stealing this once-in-a-lifetime moment from students and their families,” Levy added.
“While each university will make their own decision, we strongly encourage every school in our city to move forward with their ceremonies as planned.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters it was “unfortunate that a small group of people went too far and cost their classmates this important event.”
NYPD officers cleared the anti-Israel encampment away last week, arresting more than 100 protesters who occupied Hamilton Hall.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and every New York Republican in Congress have called for Shafik’s resignation, with D’Esposito in his letter citing the president’s “inability to maintain order on campus, keep students safe and end hate-filled violence.”
Reps for Columbia University did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
