As graduation season approaches, the University of Edinburgh has published guidelines surrounding the possibility of protests during a graduation ceremony. These discuss how attendees should not participate or entertain protestors to “ensure that the ceremony remains a positive and enjoyable experience.” This brushing-aside of the persistent existence of student action is merely a continuation of the university’s insistence that protests aren’t an active part of life at the university today.
As a first-year student, I can remember one of the first emails I received after enrolling was a sternly worded message from Sir Peter Mathieson, discouraging joining pro-Palestine protests occurring around campus on the anniversary of 7 October. Mathieson did little to explain why the protest was occurring and instead made a thinly veiled presage that those thinking of participating must “think carefully” about the consequences of their actions. This was accompanied by an exceedingly vague virtue-signalling condemnation of global violence that didn’t force the university to take any quantifiable action, in fact, I can picture Mathieson giving himself a pat on the back after writing it. This was a blatant attempt by the higher-ups to prevent students from joining a protest they were within their rights to peacefully participate in, and that occurred without destructive behaviour from those involved.
These new guidelines, published ahead of the 2025 winter graduation ceremonies, are a continuation of this approach by the university executives where they assume the worst in their students’ temperament. The encouragement to “remain calm and composed” is what you tell people during an actual emergency and not an organised demonstration. Now, I acknowledge this is a two-tier discussion as the graduating parties deserve to have an unspoiled day, and of course I would like my own peaceful ceremony in three years time. But to those who graduate this year, I say worry not about whether there will be protests, but ask why the university doesn’t have an open relationship with student networks to ensure proper communication.
Graduation day is your day to reflect upon your journey, and intimidation as a form of security is not needed for this to occur. I would recommend you reach out to university bodies since they seem to misunderstand their responsibilities and boundaries. Ask what efforts they are making to pre-emptively ensure your graduation is a controlled environment within reasonable measures and if they are having active conversations with those who may be planning to protest. The presence of security is not an issue, it’s the tabooisation and othering of protests with these methods, which implies the most insincere type of disregard towards protestors’ concerns.
In a perfect world, graduation day is a smooth process that is unforgettable for a good reason. While security is clearly one aspect of making that happen, the university would rather pretend that the protests have no reason to be occurring and we are all one bad day from becoming looters. Much like the graffiti incident in January, the university is more concerned with countering the backlash from, rather than the root of, student uproar. Treating the symptoms of an ineffective system does not cure the underlying issues, as hard as the university tries. This is only because the treatment, actual meaningful divestment and the redistribution of funds towards the staff, would disgruntle those at the top who see the university as a business and us as nothing more than customers. We don’t all have two jobs to rely on, Mathieson.
We don’t have to be like this, however. For as uncertain as the university’s scenario seems, we can still talk about the problem, quantify it, and ration a solution for it. If we close the conversation, we close out the ways to stop absolutes being forced upon our problem. Never let anyone tell you what issues do or do not matter to you, and if you can do nothing else, keep talking until someone else joins in.
Photo by Mark Chan for The Student.
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The False Virtue of the University’s Graduation Guidelines
As graduation season approaches, the University of Edinburgh has published guidelines surrounding the possibility of protests during a graduation ceremony. These discuss how attendees should not participate or entertain protestors to “ensure that the ceremony remains a positive and enjoyable experience.” This brushing-aside of the persistent existence of student action is merely a continuation of the university’s insistence that protests aren’t an active part of life at the university today.
As a first-year student, I can remember one of the first emails I received after enrolling was a sternly worded message from Sir Peter Mathieson, discouraging joining pro-Palestine protests occurring around campus on the anniversary of 7 October. Mathieson did little to explain why the protest was occurring and instead made a thinly veiled presage that those thinking of participating must “think carefully” about the consequences of their actions. This was accompanied by an exceedingly vague virtue-signalling condemnation of global violence that didn’t force the university to take any quantifiable action, in fact, I can picture Mathieson giving himself a pat on the back after writing it. This was a blatant attempt by the higher-ups to prevent students from joining a protest they were within their rights to peacefully participate in, and that occurred without destructive behaviour from those involved.
These new guidelines, published ahead of the 2025 winter graduation ceremonies, are a continuation of this approach by the university executives where they assume the worst in their students’ temperament. The encouragement to “remain calm and composed” is what you tell people during an actual emergency and not an organised demonstration. Now, I acknowledge this is a two-tier discussion as the graduating parties deserve to have an unspoiled day, and of course I would like my own peaceful ceremony in three years time. But to those who graduate this year, I say worry not about whether there will be protests, but ask why the university doesn’t have an open relationship with student networks to ensure proper communication.
Graduation day is your day to reflect upon your journey, and intimidation as a form of security is not needed for this to occur. I would recommend you reach out to university bodies since they seem to misunderstand their responsibilities and boundaries. Ask what efforts they are making to pre-emptively ensure your graduation is a controlled environment within reasonable measures and if they are having active conversations with those who may be planning to protest. The presence of security is not an issue, it’s the tabooisation and othering of protests with these methods, which implies the most insincere type of disregard towards protestors’ concerns.
In a perfect world, graduation day is a smooth process that is unforgettable for a good reason. While security is clearly one aspect of making that happen, the university would rather pretend that the protests have no reason to be occurring and we are all one bad day from becoming looters. Much like the graffiti incident in January, the university is more concerned with countering the backlash from, rather than the root of, student uproar. Treating the symptoms of an ineffective system does not cure the underlying issues, as hard as the university tries. This is only because the treatment, actual meaningful divestment and the redistribution of funds towards the staff, would disgruntle those at the top who see the university as a business and us as nothing more than customers. We don’t all have two jobs to rely on, Mathieson.
We don’t have to be like this, however. For as uncertain as the university’s scenario seems, we can still talk about the problem, quantify it, and ration a solution for it. If we close the conversation, we close out the ways to stop absolutes being forced upon our problem. Never let anyone tell you what issues do or do not matter to you, and if you can do nothing else, keep talking until someone else joins in.
Photo by Mark Chan for The Student.
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