This year’s tassel is causing a hassle.
Columbia University is moving its graduation from the Ivy League school’s campus to its uptown football stadium — prompting a group of angry students to claim the switch to the “foreign” location is “punishment” for years of controversial pro-Palestinian and anti-ICE protests.
The school’s graduating class is desperately trying to reverse the decision to host the ceremony at the Robert K. Kraft Field at the Baker Athletics Complex in Inwood — a move the class of 2026 has slammed as “evil.”
The Ivy League’s graduating class is desperately trying to reverse the decision to host the ceremony at the Robert K. Kraft Field. Adam Gray for the NYPost“It’s disrespectful to the student body. We’ve all put in so much hard work at least four years here, and we deserve to feel like we’re being honored and celebrated and respected by the university,” Barnard pre-med student Vivian Carmody, 22, told The Post.
“Between everything that’s happened — especially to my class in the last four years — it feels like more and more of a disconnect between the student body and the administration. And this is just like the cherry on top.”
Widespread outcry erupted almost immediately after Columbia broke the news that this year’s commencement wouldn’t be held on the Morningside campus’s Low Steps in a Feb. 9 email — just three months before its 18,000 students were set to cross the stage, the Columbia Spectator first reported.
Instead, the ceremony would be held eight miles north in the bleachers of the school’s football stadium, which Carmody said most students rarely ever venture out to.
Columbia University announced earlier this month that its commencement would not take place on the Low Steps as in years past. POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesAfter realizing thousands of her fellow graduates felt the same, Carmody launched an online petition imploring administrators to reverse course — garnering more than 1,700 signatures.
“Baker is a location that is frustratingly foreign. I want to graduate on the same campus. I want to bring my family to the place I spent so much time at,” a student named Emily wrote.
“Yeah man why not just have the culmination of the ivy league experience be walking around a turf football field,” Griffin added.
Robert K. Kraft Field at the Baker Athletics Complex hosted commencement in 2024, when Columbia was inundated with anti-Israel protests.
Chariclia simply noted: “This decision is so evil.”
A group of senior class presidents also provided a 40-page document of compiled complaints to the university’s commencement team, the Columbia Spectator reported.
The school claimed the move was made to accommodate the massive class, which is 20% larger than its 2025 predecessor.
Students expressed disappointment with the change, with one describing it as “so evil.” AFP via Getty ImagesBut some seniors were quick to point out that Columbia was planning to split commencement into separate undergraduate and graduate ceremonies for the first time — leading them to question why the reduced-size events couldn’t be held on the Low Steps anyway.
This marks the second time Columbia moved its graduation to Inwood.
The class of 2026 has a “reputation” for protests, said one student. APThe university canceled its commencement ceremony in 2024 and moved most of the Class Day ceremonies to Kraft Field out of concerns for student safety after the Ivy League school stoked controversy for allowing a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” and anti-Israel demonstrations on its South Lawn.
At the time, seniors believed the change was a punishment for the unruly protests and bad publicity.
A group of senior class presidents also provided a 40-page document of compiled complaints to the university’s commencement team. James Keivom-Pool/New York PostPlenty of this year’s graduating students participated in those protests and have continued the trend in recent weeks with explosive anti-ICE demonstrations — leading some to theorize that an outraged administration is continuing to slap down the students for exercising their right to free speech.
“Columbia hasn’t seen this many protests in a few years, and our class has kind of been given that reputation, so it does kind of feel like a punishment in that way,” said Carmody, a first-generation college graduate.
“It’s something I’ve been looking forward to and seeing other seniors experience it. … It’s this big celebration and we’re just not going to get to experience it in the traditional sense if the decision isn’t reversed,” said Carmody, calling the Low Steps a “really iconic part of campus.”
Another swirling theory is that the class of 2026 is being used as guinea pigs to gauge the student body’s response to permanently moving commencement to the football field as the school considers boosting its undergraduate enrollment by 20% for its School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Meanwhile, the last-minute change is causing a logistical and emotional nightmare for students, whose families have already booked hotels next to the Morningside campus months in advance.
Columbia declined to comment when reached by The Post, but the University Senate Student Affairs Committee told the Spectator that it was in talks with administrators about reversing course — with a final decision expected to land in the coming week.






