Pomp and circumstance were everywhere at Columbia University on Wednesday, following another school year that included controversial circumstances on campus.
The school held its main-campus graduation for the Class of 2025 on Wednesday morning.
The school's main commencement ceremony was cancelled last year because of ongoing protests over the war in Gaza.
Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated outside the university's gates during Wednesday's ceremonies. There was a large presence of New York Police Department personnel around the campus.
The NYPD told Scripps News it arrested two demonstrators. One was charged with resisting arrest, obstructing government administration in the second degree and disorderly conduct; the other was charged with reckless endangerment for lighting items on fire on a public sidewalk.
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The university has continued to be embroiled in controversy this year.
In March, Columbia announced it was changing some policies after the Trump administration cut some of its federal funding.
Several Columbia students have also been targeted and arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
The Trump administration has accused them of supporting protests aligned with Hamas.
The detentions, like that of Mahmoud Khalil, have been criticized for a lack of due process.
Khalil was detained in March and is being held in a facility in Louisiana.
The Columbia University graduate student was set to graduate on Wednesday. Instead, he awaits an immigration court hearing scheduled for Thursday.
Columbia's acting president Claire Shipman addressed Khalil and other international students during her remarks.
"We firmly believe that our international students have the same rights to freedom of speech as everyone else, and they should not be targeted by the government for exercising that right," Shipman said. "And let me also say, that I know many in our community today are mourning the absence of our graduate Mahmoud Khalil."
Shipman was booed during parts of her speech. She was also booed and shouted down during remarks on Tuesday at another commencement program, with students shouting, "Free Mahmoud."
Students have been critical of the administration's handling of protests over the past year and a half.
"I think you can tell by the heckling and the boos how much of the student body feels regarding the president and some of the other administrators," said Satvic Garg, an engineering graduate student who graduated from Columbia. "But, I would say that overall students want to spend time with each other for the last couple of days that you have with your peers and with some of your professors."
