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NYU has a terrible new solution to curb valedictorians getting political at commencement

Graduation podiums have become political soapboxes — and New York University has a terrible solution.

For the class of 2026’s big day, the school is having students pre-record their commencement addresses to prevent anyone from using the commencement podium as a platform for controversial political beliefs — a common occurrence at colleges around the country in recent years.

Speakers will sit quietly on the stage as their pre-taped remarks play on a screen.

It’s a sad reflection of how divisive campuses have become — and an ever sadder moment for free speech.

Washington Square News, NYU’s student newspaper, reported that a senior set to deliver an address this year was reportedly told by a dean that her speech would be “professionally recorded” in an attempt to curate a “respectful experience.”

Last May, NYU student Logan Rozos used his graduation speech as a completely inappropriate platform to condemn “atrocities currently happening in Palestine” and accused the United States of “complicity in this genocide.”

Similar stunts have occurred at George Washington University, Harvard University, and MIT in recent years. 

In the end, NYU withheld Rozos’s diploma and issued a statement saying he had “misused his role” to express “personal and one-sided political views.”

Understandably, they want........

© New York Post