Leslie Young
CONSEQUENCES for Megha Vemuri, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Class of 2025. Vemuri was banned from attending the undergraduate commencement ceremony on Friday, May 30, 2025 for having performed a “switcheroo” after she delivered a pro-Palestinian speech during the OneMIT commencement ceremony on Thursday, May 29, 2025, which deviated from the speech she had submitted in advance to university officials. MIT Chancellor Melissa Nobles informed Vemuri via email that she and her family were barred from campus for most of Friday, citing that Vemuri "deliberately and repeatedly misled organizers" and violated MIT’s rules by leading a "protest from the stage," disrupting the ceremony. Vemuri disputed the characterization of her speech as a protest and called the ban an "overreach.”
