Rutgers-New Brunswick commencement goes smoothly, with small protest

It was rainy and cold, but still a smooth and celebratory Sunday morning for Rutgers-New Brunswick’s newly minted graduates at its 258th commencement — other than a group of around 40 students who left the ceremony early, after calling out “Free Palestine.” 

Despite fears that the pro-Palestinian campus protests sweeping the nation would disrupt the ceremonies, the 4,200 students who showed up in cap and gown at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, usually home to the school’s football games, got to “turn their tassels” without incident. 

There was a mood of optimism, buoyed by comments from commencement speaker Freeman Hrabowski III, president emeritus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who sources said did not have a prepared speech and delivered most of his comments after asking three graduating students before the event what the student body wanted to hear from him.

“Their advice to me,” Hrabowski said in his speech, “was say something to give us hope.” Talking about his history in the Civil Rights Movement and asking students to cheer for all the mothers in the audience ― Sunday was Mother’s Day ― he told the students: “You will be OK.”