This graduation season, at least three universities disinvited their commencement speakers before ceremonies: Rutgers, Utah Valley University, and South Carolina State. The cancellations involve posts about Israel's war in Gaza and the political aftermath of conservative activist Charlie Kirk's assassination at Utah Valley University in September 2025. One controversy ended with a Rutgers dean formally censured by the faculty senate. One left a university with no speaker at all. None of them are fully resolved.

Graduation is supposed to be the easy part. This spring, the commencement speaker slot became a recurring crisis at American universities.

Inside Higher Ed reported on May 13, 2026 that at least three institutions had disinvited graduation speakers by mid-May — with campus and political controversies driving every one of them.1

Rutgers School of Engineering

On April 30, 2026, Engineering Dean Alberto Cuitiño rescinded the speaking invitation to Rami Elghandour, CEO of the biotech company Arcellx. The reason was an April 20 X post in which Elghandour criticized Israel's military conduct, writing in part: "They've committed genocide. They're running dungeons where they train dogs to sexually assault prisoners… Weapons embargo is the absolute minimum."2

A university spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed on May 6 that some students "no longer felt comfortable attending the convocation ceremony" with Elghandour as speaker.

The response was swift. A petition demanding Elghandour's reinstatement gathered more than 36,000 signatures by May 11. On May 12, the Rutgers University Senate voted to formally censure Dean Cuitiño, calling his handling of the situation "one-sided, opaque, and harmful to the university." The same day, Elghandour posted his full 28-minute speech to YouTube — the speech he never gave. Rutgers Engineering's graduation was scheduled for May 15.2

A faculty senate formally censuring its own dean is rare. That it happened here, just days before the ceremony, reflects how contested the cancellation was inside the institution itself.

Utah Valley University

Utah Valley University's story has a harder backdrop. In September 2025, conservative activist Charlie Kirk — founder of Turning Point USA — was assassinated on the UVU campus. It was one of the most traumatic events to hit an American university in recent years.

In the aftermath, UVU invited Sharon McMahon — a bestselling author and civics educator — to speak at commencement. The invitation followed McMahon's public statement after Kirk's death, in which she said: "This isn't the kind of America I want to live in. I'm sure Charlie Kirk and I would not agree on many things. And my heart is still broken for his family."

By April 2026, that same statement had become the basis for a political campaign against her. Senator Mike Lee of Utah spent several days on X urging followers to pressure UVU to revoke the invitation. His objection was to a separate Instagram post McMahon had shared two days after the shooting — a series of slides explaining who Kirk was and what his organization stood for. U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens called UVU's selection of McMahon "morally bankrupt."1

UVU cancelled McMahon's appearance entirely, citing "increased safety concerns" after she received death threats. The university held commencement without a keynote speaker. McMahon's spokesperson stated she had "unequivocally condemned the murder of Charlie Kirk, repeatedly and publicly calling his death a tragedy and stressing that public debate must never be met with violence."

If your graduation is coming up: commencement speaker controversies do not affect degree conferral, and ceremonies almost always proceed as planned. Monitor your institution's official commencement website for any last-minute logistics changes, but do not assume your ceremony is at risk based on news coverage alone.

South Carolina State and Georgetown Law

At South Carolina State — a historically Black university — Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette was initially invited as keynote speaker. After significant backlash about her political positions, she was uninvited. Georgetown Law's planned speaker, Morton Schapiro (former president of Northwestern University), stepped down after students petitioned against his selection, citing his public statements on Israel and campus activism.1

What This Signals About Campus Culture

Every one of these cancellations shares a pattern: external pressure arrived — from politicians, online petitions, or organized groups — and the institution changed course. In some cases (Rutgers), the internal response pushed back hard enough that the university's own governance body formally rebuked the administration. In others (UVU), safety concerns became the stated reason to step back entirely.

For students researching schools right now, this is real information about how institutions behave under pressure. A university that defends decisions through a clear process differs meaningfully from one that reverses course after a few days of coordinated social-media pressure. Both types exist.

When you're building your college list and doing campus visits, ask not just what a school says about free expression, but how it has actually responded to controversy in the past 12 months. The college visit checklist has specific questions you can ask faculty and students directly.

Search "[school name] controversy" and "[school name] academic freedom" alongside the standard questions you're asking on campus tours. How an institution handles organized pressure is more revealing than its stated policies on open inquiry.

For broader context on political pressures reshaping higher education, see our coverage of faculty departures from states with academic restrictions, DEI defunding at Missouri universities, and declining Republican confidence in higher education.

What to Do Now

  • If your graduation is in May or June, confirm dates and logistics at your institution's official commencement site
  • When evaluating schools, research how they have handled controversy in the past year — not just what admissions brochures say about campus culture
  • On campus visits, ask current students directly: "Has there been a controversy in the last year? How did the administration handle it?"
  • Review the college visit checklist for additional questions worth asking before you commit

Footnotes

  1. Inside Higher Ed. (2026, May 13). 2026 Graduation Season Sees Speaker Cancellations. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/free-speech/2026/05/13/2026-graduation-season-sees-speaker-cancellations ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Inside Higher Ed. (2026, May 7). Rutgers Disinvites Grad Speaker After He Criticizes Israel. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/05/07/rutgers-disinvites-grad-speaker-after-he-criticizes-israel ↩ ↩2