Five former University of Chicago students involved in pro-Palestinian encampments on campus have received their diplomas more than two months after graduation.
Youssef Hasweh, 22, posed in his gown, with a keffiyeh draped over his shoulder and his diploma above his head in an Instagram photo posted Friday.
“(I claimed my degree) for all the students in Palestine who didn’t get degrees this year,” he wrote in the caption.
Hasweh has family in the West Bank and was a leader in on-campus protests against the University of Chicago’s ties to Israel and arms companies since the early days of the Israel-Hamas war.
Hours before his last final exam May 24, the political science major was informed his degree would be withheld pending a school disciplinary process related to his participation in on-campus encampments erected in late April and lasting through early May.
Many students were involved in the encampments, but Hasweh — along with 10 other students — received formal complaints for violating university protest and demonstration policies.
Hasweh said he and his 10 peers were never informed of specific actions that led to these complaints, and the university did not provide more detail about the nature of the complaints in a statement to the Tribune Sunday.
The five students set to graduate June 1, including Hasweh, were allowed to participate in the commencement ceremony. However, they could not receive their degrees until the conclusion of formal disciplinary hearings, per the university’s disciplinary system.
While Hasweh attended the graduation ceremony, he walked out with several other students in continued protest of the war. The demonstration was met by heckling from attendees and some protesters were pepper sprayed and attacked by university police, according to a news release from the student coalition UChicago United for Palestine.
All 11 disciplinary cases have been dismissed, according to a Monday statement from the coalition. The university registrar also confirmed Monday morning that the five graduating students received their degrees. Hasweh said he and three fellow seniors got their diplomas in the mail last week. The fifth student — a graduate student — was conferred their degree Monday morning, according to the coalition’s statement.
University police had previously arrested Hasweh during a November sit-in. He, 25 other students and two faculty members were charged with misdemeanor trespass. The charges were dropped in December, but Hasweh was consequently fired
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from a university admissions office position.Then, after his degree was withheld due to his involvement with the encampments this spring, he said he had two job offers rescinded.
With his full-time employment options pulled from the table, he built a social media presence advising high schoolers on the college process, which he notes was “very ironic” since he didn’t have a college degree until last week.
“My life kinda stood still for the past two months,” he told the Tribune on Sunday. But, he does not regret his decision to protest.
“I would do it all over again,” Hasweh said, adding that he hopes his fellow protesters see his degree conferral as “a victory.”