Our own Professor Briallen Hopper has just published a personal essay for Public Books called “A Tale of Two Graduations,” based on her experience attending two People’s Graduations last spring: one for Columbia and one for CUNY.

In Hopper’s description of the events, we can see the class inequities that have divided the city’s college students for some time:

“Columbia’s was held at the largest church in North America, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, a beautiful bastion of Gothic architecture and WASP wealth.

CUNY’s was held by the basketball court at St. Nicholas Park in Harlem, in front of a weathered chain-link fence.”

But we also see how both ceremonies were acts of joy and a testament to the students who organized and participated in these events.

Last year’s People’s Graduations, for those who don’t know, were independent commencement ceremonies organized by faculty and staff members from schools in response to the punishment of students who participated in pro-Palestine campus protests. I know this is a sensitive and complicated issue for a lot of people, let alone for members of the QC community, but no matter what your stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict is, I feel we all can appreciate these ceremonies and this essay as a testament to the resiliency of our students that are willing to stand up for their constitutional rights of free speech and peaceful protest.

We hope you read it with this in mind:

A Tale of Two Graduations