Flag in Graduation ceremony - what would you think?

[whiteroseredrose]

My DD graduated on Saturday. The ceremony is in two parts, first they 'graduate' in groups of the same subject and go outside. They then come back in in larger groups wearing their new hoods attached to the robes. All very pretty with lots of proud parents taking photos.

DD came back in with her friends, lots of clapping and cheers and I took my photos.

In the cohort immediately behind her one graduate came in carrying a full sized Palestinian flag which covered her from head to toe. So the attention switched from the 30 or so new graduates all in black and white to this huge multicoloured flag. There were some cheers and some boos.

Here's my AIBU. I think it was highly inappropriate to steal the moment from all of your classmates. It is everyone's moment of glory and shouldn't be about just one person and their beliefs. I don't think that the University staff should have let her in with it.

Am I being unreasonable?

Good for them.

How do you know that?

Hell yeah good on them genocide is a much bigger issue than someone's graduation photo being ruined 🙄

Doing it like that, in the student's own individual moment, is not the same as what the OP describes, which impinged on the celebrations of other graduates (who might hold different opinions).

DD's graduation at LSE a few weeks ago had a student unfurling a pro Palestinian flag when going up to shake hands wit the Vice Chancellor. I expect that it was quite common in graduations this year.

I am sure for most people it would be a brief fleeting moment and their minds would move on.

Possibly not for the Vice Chancellor if he or she happened to be Jewish.

Hell yeah good on them genocide is a much bigger issue than someone's graduation photo being ruined

Precisely how do you think these demonstrations will make any difference at all to anything that is happening in Gaza? I'll wait....

And where are or were all the flag waving demonstrations about the Yazidis, about Sudan, the Rohingya, the Uighur....?

We had exactly the same last year dts graduations (two different universities) Some students walking on stage unfurling flags and playing to the gallery. And in some cases a refusal to shake the chancellor’s hand for some reason that I didn’t understand.

I suppose there’s a time and a place, but that wasn’t it.

Why would it matter if the chancellor is Jewish? Showing support for Palestine is not antisemitic.

Our legal team recently covered this in a training session on the new HE freedom of speech legislation. Protests aimed at / deliberately staged in front of Jewish students or staff could be construed as harassment, in their view.

About time.

They had one "protesting" at son's graduation at Loughborough. Not the time or place. Does not align anyone with the cause.

When my son graduated last year the instructions were very clear that political symbols were not allowed, although they did allow national costume.

While students are generally left leaning, their parents aren't always! However, I don't think being against the deliberate starvation of people should be considered left wing but there's a time and place for demonstrations and I don't think a graduation is it. It's attention seeking.

I would be so fucked off if this was done or allowed at my child’s graduation. Virtual signalling at its finest. A graduation is NOT the place for this. Those poor other graduates - having one of the most important days of their lives overshadowed by a school friend with a flag! Time and a place for everything - this was not it.

You wouldn't flag wave at a wedding or a civil union, a baptism or christening, or a funeral. There are some events that as a culture we hold close and for a lot of people a graduation fits in with these.

The flag denotes many things - 'deliberate' starvation, is yet another inaccuracy, facilitated by that flag.

Good for them. Lots of universities have investments tied to companies in Israel. Students have always been huge advocates of protest so I don’t see why you’re bothered. It’s not your graduation, it’s theirs and they’ve paid tens of thousands in fees which they might not want going towards atrocities being committed.

@ASongOfRiceAndPeas
Lots of universities have investments tied to companies in Israel

Are students able to find out about these investments? If so, and they are opposed to them, then why are they going to universities which invest in Israeli companies?

Lots of people aren’t aware even now - maybe they found out while in the middle of their studies or towards the end? What’s difficult to grasp about people learning new information - while at uni of all places!

Generally I don’t think it’s an appropriate occasion for activism but I also think how it’s done matters.

At DS’s graduation a few weeks ago one student had a small flag (Palestinian) that they only got out when they were presented with their degree.

It didn’t impact any other students/photo opportunities for parents and I didn’t object to it. It was clearly a personal gesture that imho was not intrusive to the occasion as a whole.

YANBU. Massively inappropriate, not the time it place and detracts from the other graduates.

The uni staff should have told her to take it off.

Do you reckon that the same would be allowed this year? With Columbia being the latest to bend the knee to Trump, and ICE waiting in the wings for any international students.