CUNY Law finds graduation venue at Apollo Theater after months of searching

Published Apr 20, 2024 at 5:01 a.m. ET

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Published Apr 20, 2024 at 5:01 a.m. ET

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CUNY School of Law has finally found a venue for its graduation ceremony after months of searching, but new details about the event and a recently filed discrimination complaint alleging discrimination against pro-Palestinian students shows the controversy over last year’s commencement speaker is far from over.

This year’s graduation will be held on May 23 at the Apollo Theater, according to an invitation. The law school struggled to find a venue, Gothamist previously reported.

Students say this year’s commencement is scaled back compared to past years. Their criticism comes as a cohort of law students filed a complaint with the federal education department revisiting the furor over speaker Fatima Mohammed's criticism of Israel during her 2023 commencement address.

The students’ complaint says the school is discriminating against them by suppressing their free speech rights. The legal dispute comes as school campuses around the country navigate protests and accusations of administrators censoring pro-Palestinian views.

This year’s commencement will not be recorded or live streamed by CUNY Law as it has been in the past, according to students on CUNY Law’s graduation committee. And grads only get four invitations for friends and family — a number that some students grumbled was not enough. There will also be no commencement speaker, a move that is cited in the new complaint as an attempt to “to prevent speech in support of Palestinian lives and liberation.”

“What CUNY Law is doing is part of a nationwide effort by universities to oppress student speech for Palestine. It’s not new, it’s within a pattern,” said Sajia Hanif, a Muslim CUNY Law senior who was part of the group that filed the complaint.

The Apollo did not respond to inquiries about the decision to host CUNY Law graduates when other venues had declined.

The Apollo Theater will host CUNY Law's graduation ceremony on May 23.

CUNY Law spokesperson Elise Billing said the school “stand(s) firm in our commitment to combat discrimination in all of its forms in the work that we do and within our law school community.” She declined to comment on the complaint.

The complaint revisits Mohammed’s comments in May of last year, when she said Israel “continues its project of settler colonialism expelling Palestinains from their homes” and “carrying the ongoing nakba” — referring to the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinains in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

CUNY Law administrators condemned Mohammed for spreading “hate speech,” and in September barred any commencement speakers from this year’s graduation ceremony. The federal complaint alleges that the decision was made a day after a group of pro-Israel protestors rallied outside the CUNY chancellor’s office.

Several attempts to reach Mohammed were unsuccessful.

The complaint was filed Tuesday by the civil rights group Muslim Advocates. Students at Hunter College and Queens College filed similar complaints this week against against those schools alleging censorship and repression of Palestinian students.

Universities around the country have been rocked by frequent protests and tension since Hamas militants invaded Israel and killed what the Israeli government estimates to be 1,200 people. Israel responded by invading Gaza, launching a war that has killed more than 30,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

On Monday, administrators at the University of Southern California canceled a pro-Palestinian Muslim valedictorian student speaker from its upcoming graduation ceremony, citing safety concerns. The move came after a pro-Israel group claimed the speaker linked antisemitic content on social media.

The complaint asks the federal education department to investigate CUNY Law and order it to “eliminate its discriminatory policies and practices and hostile environment against students who hold, are perceived to hold, or are associated or affiliated with Palestinian identity.”

Hanif said that the law school is “steeped in the values of social justice” and that its students see speaking about injustices around the world as a critical part of their studies. PreLaw Magazine recently ranked CUNY Law as the most diverse law school in the country, and its school motto is “Law in the Service of Human Needs.”

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Ramsey Khalifeh is a general assignment reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the city's most powerful institutions and the work they do (or don't). He was previously a summer intern on the Day-of desk and also worked at the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]

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