Best Practices to Address Commencement Program Disruptions
Spring 2025

Since the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023 and Israel’s subsequent war against Hamas in Gaza, Hillel International has tracked a more than 700% increase in antisemitic incidents, including harassment, threats, bullying, intimidation, vandalism, and violence when compared to the same period pre-2023. Although Hillel International has documented fewer disruptive activities on college and university campuses this year, there are still far too many instances of antisemitism and anti-Israel activity that impacts the campus climate for Jewish and all students. As such, we are providing the below updated guidance on the steps that administrators can take to ensure that commencements occur without disruption and to maintain the focus on celebrating the academic achievements of the graduates and their families.  

The following specific recommendations are intended to address potential disruptions of commencement activities that target Jewish and other Zionist-identifying students and guests on campus and are unlawful and/or violate university policies, while maintaining opportunities for lawful protest activity. Such disruptions may not only violate local and state laws and/or university policies governing protest activity, but also the civil rights of Jewish and other Zionist-identifying students and guests on campus to participate in university-sponsored events free of harassment, intimidation, verbal assaults, and violence.  While several schools may have already implemented these best practices, we provide them here to ensure everyone has a safe, inclusive, and successful commencement.  

1. Review and, if appropriate, clarify the time, place, and manner regulations applicable to protest activity to ensure that such activity does not impermissibly interfere with or disrupt such events.
2. Widely disseminate specific time, place, and manner regulations so individuals and groups planning protest activity can ensure their behavior and actions align with the university’s rules.  Set clear expectations for student conduct at commencement and related campus events, and specifically detail the consequences of violating these expectations.
3. Protest activity must not be allowed to target known Jewish locations, student groups, or individuals. This includes campus Jewish facilities such as Hillel and Chabad centers, Jewish Greek life buildings, and other locations where Jews congregate together as a community. 
4. Express the direct connection of your university’s regulations and expectations to the basic values of your university. Students share the responsibility of maintaining a campus atmosphere conducive to civil discourse and a respectful exchange of ideas. A speaker’s right to speak and the audience’s right to gather for, and hear, a program are no less important than the right to protest.  
5.  Reach out directly to individuals and groups that may be planning protest activity to establish a communication channel before and during such protest activity, including student affairs administrators, law enforcement, and other related university departments.
6. Anticipate and plan for a variety of scenarios involving potential disruptions and establish a clear dissemination of responsibility for student affairs, law enforcement, and related university functions in responding to each scenario.    
7. Reach out to local law enforcement and engage them in scenario planning as appropriate.  Secure Community Network may be a helpful resource.  Reach out to [email protected] to connect with SCN.
8. Develop a clear plan with procedures to deal with disruptions during a commencement ceremony itself and related campus events that include speakers.  The plan should include:
   • Who is responsible for removing disruptive individuals and at what point will disruptors be removed from the event and be subject to arrest.
   • How speakers should respond when they are interrupted. 
9. Many Jewish institutions in the US have increased security at their facilities, and the FBI and local law enforcement agencies are  significantly stepping up their vigilance of such locations. Coordinate campus law enforcement with your campus Hillel, Chabad, and Jewish fraternities/sororities to ensure that the security needs of those facilities are addressed. 

For more information, please contact Hillel International’s Campus Climate Initiative (CCI) at [email protected].

RESOURCES:

• Howard Gillman and Erwin Chemerinsky, Free Speech on Campus (2018)
• Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey R. Stone, Eternally Vigilant: Free Speech in the Modern Era (2002)