After late-semester protests, Emory marks graduation ‘not in the quad’

ATLANTA — Emory University held its undergraduate commencement at Gas South Arena in Gwinnett County in a ceremony Monday morning that did not include the kinds of major anti-war demonstrations that have rattled the school in recent weeks.

The 90-minute ceremony concluded shortly after 10 a.m. with blue and yellow streamers — the university’s colors — cascading through the dimly-lit arena and students heading to celebrations held by Emory’s various colleges.

The decision announced last week to move the celebration to Gas South Arena, more than 20 miles from its campus, disappointed many students, parents and faculty who were prepared for the ceremony to take place on the large, grassy quad on its Druid Hills campus, as it has been done for years.

Emory President Gregory L. Fenves acknowledged there would be “deep disappointment” about the change, but said safety concerns led officials to move graduation-related ceremonies indoors.

The Rev. Robert M. Franklin, the inaugural James T. and Berta R. Laney Chair in Moral Leadership at Emory’s Candler School of Theology, acknowledged the change in his welcome remarks to the audience.

”We are not in the quad today as originally planned. This Is a reflection of the extraordinary times we are living through,” said Franklin, a former Morehouse College president. He commended the graduates — who finished high school during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — for their resilience.

”Now with a charged atmosphere on college campuses nationwide, you are once again adapting to the unprecedented.”

In other developments:

* Southern California’s small Pomona College moved Sunday evening’s commencement 30 miles to the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles after pro-Palestinian protesters set up an encampment last week on the campus’ ceremony stage. A few dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to block access to the graduation event.

* The Johns Hopkins University and protesters occupying a pro-Palestinian encampment on the Homewood campus have reached an agreement to end the demonstration immediately. In exchange for the encampment being dismantled and not restarted, Hopkins will conduct a “timely review of protestors’ key question of divestment,” according to the Baltimore university in a Sunday news release.

* DePaul University has reached an “impasse” in negotiations with the school’s pro-Palestine encampment, administrators said Saturday night, as protest organizers worry they’ll be forcefully removed from the Lincoln Park quad, accusing the school of negotiating in “bad faith.”