AMHERST, Mass. (WCAX) – Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead has pulled out of giving the commencement address at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, citing the administration’s decision to call the police on campus protesters.
Police arrested about 130 people at UMass Tuesday night after the college says the pro-Palestinian protesters refused to take down an encampment on campus.
An increasing number of college campuses are cracking down on the encampments. Police early Friday dismantled an encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Authorities also moved to clear protesters from the University of Pennsylvania’s campus in Philadelphia, hours after police tear-gassed protesters and took down an encampment at the University of Arizona.
UMass has said the May 18th graduation will proceed without a commencement speaker, according to the New York Times.
Students at the University of Vermont took down their encampment voluntarily earlier this week. UVM will also not have a commencement speaker after the school announced last week that U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield will not speak at the May 18 graduation. Students had called for UVM to cancel Thomas-Greenfield’s commencement in response to her vetoes of three ceasefire resolutions.
