On May 16, graduating history senior B joined a small group of students walking out of the UTD graduation commencement ceremony in protest of UTD’s investment in weapons manufacturers complicit in the Gazan genocide. They walked out holding Palestinian flags and signs while chanting for UTIMCO, the UT System’s investment arm, to divest from five major manufacturers. These chants were soon silenced by UTDPD, which forcefully disbanded the procession as members of administration watched from a distance, eventually resulting in the arrest of two student protestors.
B requested anonymity from The Retrograde because of the threats B and their fellow student activists face from the university and legal system.
B began protesting before the commencement ceremony at 2:30 p.m. outside of the UTDesign expo in Synergy Park North. Through UTDesign Capstone, the capstone project course mandatory for all ECS majors, UTD partners with weapons manufacturers like RTX and Lockheed Martin to sponsor different capstone projects. According to Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian Territories, these companies sell the weapons used to perpetrate what human rights groups like Amnesty International call a genocide in Gaza. Because of the presence of these companies, the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at UTD organized the demonstration outside of the UTDesign expo, where representatives from the companies would be present to see the results of their sponsored capstone projects. B said that despite some individuals attempting to shut down the protest, the protestors were able to gain the attention of the expo attendees and successfully disrupt the expo. Now that they had successfully protested the expo, the next stop for B and SJP was to protest the university itself at UTD’s spring 2025 commencement ceremony.
B said the commencement protest had been carefully planned days in advance by SJP to minimize any potential consequences of protesting. The plan was to disrupt UTD president Richard Benson’s speech at commencement due to his history of suppressing political activism on campus, before walking out of commencement to protest UTD’s refusal to divest funds from weapons manufacturers. B arrived at the commencement ceremony after it had begun, when the protestors had already begun disrupting the event.
“[During his speech], Benson announced that he was stepping down, [and] students started agitating, stating that his legacy would be genocide and that the students demand divestment,” B said. “That’s what they kept repeating, and then they [brandished] their flags and they were walking out.”
B joined the other protestors in walking out of commencement, chanting “the students demand divestment” and “shame on you.” B held up their sign as their peers unfurled Palestinian flags and banners to ensure that people recognized what they were standing for. The procession marched out of the event for around five minutes before coming face to face with the police. The police began snatching the protestors’ flags and attempting to disperse the group, with one prominent SJP organizer being put into a chokehold by the police. B was in the back of the group, and as such didn’t face such an extreme reaction from the police, simply being told to leave campus. B believes that this was an example of the police targeting the main organizers of the protest.
“The cops were definitely violent with the students … and they also applied penalties differently, which definitely shows targeting and such,” B said. “They [targeted] the main organizers because … the police were actually pretty relaxed with me compared to how they were with other students, like they didn’t take my name, they just said, ‘don’t come back for the rest of the day,’ but they didn’t ban me from campus and they didn’t give me any serious consequences. I can’t say the same for the other protesters.”
In the aftermath of the protest, two prominent student organizers associated with SJP were placed under interim bans by the university, preventing them from setting foot on campus — a ban which included their own graduations. B said the response from UTD did not stop there. Around two weeks after the commencement ceremony, the police arrested two of the May 16 protesters who served as prominent organizers of the demonstration. While both organizers were quickly released on bail, their arrests marked the second time pro-Palestine protesters have been prosecuted for their political activism at UTD graduations. B said that despite the legal repercussions levied against the two student protesters and the ever-increasing challenges facing organizing at UTD, student organizers will remain active in their opposition to genocide.
“A big success of organizing was honestly Benson being forced to step down,” B said. “If [UTD] continues [trying] to secure grants that receive funding from the Israeli military, then student organizing will continue to oppose that.”
The Retrograde reached out to the two arrested students, who both declined to comment because of their ongoing legal proceedings.