Agencies New York

An Indian-American student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was barred from attending her graduation ceremony after delivering a speech denouncing the war in Gaza, according to media reports.

Megha Vemuri, the 2025 class president of MIT, is the latest in the list of students to face discipline after protesting the war in Gaza. Vemuri told CNN that after her speech, the university’s senior leadership informed her she was not allowed to attend Friday’s commencement ceremony and was barred from campus until the event concluded.

School officials confirmed that they told Vemuri that she was prohibited from attending the undergraduate ceremony. MIT leadership said that they stand by the punishment they issued to Vemuri.

“MIT supports free expression but stands by its decision, which was in response to the individual deliberately and repeatedly misleading Commencement organisers and leading a protest from the stage,” a school spokesperson said in a statement. The school said that she would receive her degree.

Vemuri, who grew up in Georgia, praised her peers for protesting the war in Gaza and criticised the university’s ties to Israel.