New York University withheld Israel's student diploma in graduation speech | American University

He will reject students' diplomas after New York University condemns Israel's deadly war on Gaza in his graduation ceremony speech.

"This time, the only thing that can be said is the awareness of the atrocities currently taking place in Palestinian," said Logan Rozos, an undergraduate speaker at the Gallatin School of Personalized Studies, New York University, who gave his speech Wednesday.

Rozos told the crowd, "When I was addressing you today, his "moral and political commitment (that) guided me" condemned the Israeli attack on Gaza, which killed at least 53,000 Palestinians in the past year and a half.

Logan Rozo, NYU Galatine student president,

“I’ve been very scared of this speech to be honest and as I’m speaking to you today, all my moral and political commitments lead me to say, this time and… the only thing to say is… pic.twitter.com/yjiqw9sbe8

-Farrukh (@ImplausibleBlog) May 15, 2025

Rozos went on to say, "The genocide that is currently happening is politically and militaryally supported by the United States, paid by our taxes, has been living on our phones for the past 18 months. I don't want to speak to my own politics today, but to all conscience, and all people have caused moral abuse to this emotion." ”

Rozos' anti-war speech received widespread cheers and applause from students throughout the auditorium. Some attendees booed Rozos, and one seemed to yell "nonsense!" from the crowd.

Following Rozos’ speech, New York University issued a statement saying “this strongly condemns the choice of students who graduated today at Gallatin School…abuses his role as a student speaker to express his personal and unilateral political views.”

"He lied to the speech he was going to make and violated his commitment to complying with our rules. The university withheld diplomas when we take discipline. NYU deeply regrets that audiences have suffered these remarks, and this moment was killed by people who were granted his privileges," the university added.

As of Thursday morning, Rozos' student profile on the NYU Gallatin website appeared to have been deleted and said: "The page or file could not be found (404 error).".

Rozos and Nyu did not immediately return requests for comment.

Last August, NYU updated its student behavior guide to include “code words, such as ‘Zionists’” as an example of discriminatory speeches.

"For many Jews, Zionism is part of their Jewish identity. If targeting people of Jews or Israel, if targeting Zionists, speech and behavior will violate (nondiscrimination and anti-harassment policies), and may also violate Enda."

The latest guide is months after anti-war students on NYU and other university campuses nationwide. As a result, NYU administrators called police to campus, resulting in widespread arrests of students and faculty.

Last December, New York University (NYU) announced two tenured professors as "character non-lawyers", accusing the university of escalating its suppression of anti-war speeches under pressure from donors, politicians and pro-Israeli groups.

Two professors, Andrew Ross and Sonya Posmentier, were banned from entering certain university buildings. The PNG statement was published in Ross and Posmentier joining the university’s sit-in, calling on the university to withdraw from companies that profited from Israel’s war in the Gaza war.

A few months later, the university canceled a speech on USD cuts after seeing the speech as “anti-government.” According to Dr. Joanne Liu, a pediatric emergency physician at Sainte-Justine Hospital, former international president of Médecins Sans Frontières, the doctor of the NYU Department of Education, called her the night before March.

Liu said the vice-chairman expressed concern about the content of some of her slides, including references to the Trump administration’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development’s slides and the reference to Palestinian casualties in Gaza due to Israel’s war across the strip. Liu said she was told that Gaza’s slides “can be considered anti-Semitism.”