Pomona College moved Sunday's graduation ceremony 30 miles away to Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium after pro-Palestinian protesters set up camp this week on the ceremony site.
Tickets will be required to attend the 6 p.m. event, which the university says will include additional safety measures. The university will provide transportation services to graduates.
“We are deeply grateful for your patience in this extraordinary situation and look forward to honoring our graduates on Sunday. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience of these changes made to ensure that the class of 2024 can graduate with the assistance of their loved ones,” Pomona officials wrote in a statement on their website.
The decision follows USC's decision to cancel the traditional main campus graduation ceremony and instead hold an alternative celebration at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum last Thursday, which featured fireworks and a drone show.
As at USC, pro-Palestine protests have rocked the Pomona campus, with student activists demanding that the university publicly call for a ceasefire and divest university endowment funds from corporations linked to Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the occupation of the West Bank. In April, police in riot gear arrested 19 protesters who had occupied the university president's office.
“Pomona is feeling the pressure. The government would rather spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to move up graduation rather than compromise on students' demands,” Pomona Divest From Apartheid activists wrote in an Instagram post following Pomona's announcement. “What we are doing is working. We are strong and united!”
