#nyu commencement

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Samantha Riedel at Them:

New York University (NYU) administrators say they are withholding the diploma of Black trans undergraduate student Logan Rozos pending “disciplinary actions,” after Rozos condemned the “atrocities currently happening in Palestine” during his commencement address for the Gallatin School of Individualized Study this week. “As I search my heart in addressing you all today, my moral and political commitments guide me to say that the only appropriate thing to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine,” Rozos began, to cheers and applause from the crowd. “I want to say that the genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the Unted States, is paid for by our tax dollars, and has been livestreamed to our phones for the past 18 months. “I do not wish to speak only to my own politics today, but to speak for all people of conscience, and all people who feel the moral injury of this atrocity,” Rozos continued. “And I want to say that I condemn this genocide, and complicity in this genocide.” In a statement on Thursday, NYU Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Strategic Communications John Beckman said that the university is currently withholding Rozos’ diploma while administrators pursue “disciplinary actions.” Beckman accused Rozos of “misus[ing] his role as student speaker to express his personal and one-sided political views,” alleging that Rozos “lied about the speech he was going to deliver and violated the commitment he made to comply with our rules.” Beckman did not specify what rules Rozos is alleged to have broken, nor what manner of disciplinary actions the university will seek. Them emailed Beckman to request clarification, but did not receive a reply at time of writing. In addition to being an NYU undergraduate student, Rozos is an actor best known for his debut in the Peabody Award-winning series David Makes Man in 2019, and was one of GLAAD and Teen Vogue’s “20 Under 20” list of LGBTQ+ changemakers in 2020. He is also the narrator of several trans-themed audiobooks, and a co-director and producer of the forthcoming documentary What Will I Become?.

[...] On Thursday, May 15 — the day after Rozos’ commencement address, and “Nakba day,” the annual observance of the 1948 annexation of Palestine — dozens of students booed and walked out of Mills’ own speech during the main NYU graduation ceremony at Yankee Stadium, Washington Square News reported.

The NYU’s decision to withhold the diploma of trans student Logan Rozos for his graduation speech that denounced the Israel Apartheid State’s Gaza Genocide campaign is disgraceful.

See Also:

LGBTQ Nation: NYU withholds trans student’s diploma for condemning Gaza war in graduation speech

The Advocate: NYU withholds degree from gay transgender student over commencement speech

The Guardian: NYU withholds diploma of student who condemned Israel in graduation speech

[tayfabe75]

"Not being invited to the parties and sleepovers in my hometown made me feel hopelessly lonely, but because I felt alone, I would sit in my room and write the songs that would get me a ticket somewhere else. Having label executives in Nashville tell me that only 35-year-old housewives listen to country music and there was no place for a 13-year-old on their roster made me cry in the car on the way home. But then I'd post my songs on my Myspace and yes, Myspace, and would message with other teenagers like me who loved country music, but just didn't have anyone singing from their perspective. Having journalists write in-depth, oftentimes critical, pieces about who they perceive me to be made me feel like I was living in some weird simulation, but it also made me look inward to learn about who I actually am. Having the world treat my love life like a spectator sport in which I lose every single game was not a great way to date in my teens and twenties, but it taught me to protect my private life fiercely. Being publicly humiliated over and over again at a young age was excruciatingly painful but it forced me to devalue the ridiculous notion of minute by minute, ever fluctuating social relevance and likability. Getting canceled on the internet and nearly losing my career gave me an excellent knowledge of all the types of wine."

May 18, 2022: During her commencement speech for NYU, Taylor mentions finding solace in other teenage country fans on Myspace when she was just starting out, and shares how those spectating her love life taught her to guard her private life fiercely. (source 1, 2)

[oh-my-damn]

"This might sound like a very song-writer centric line of discussion, but in a way, I really do think that we are all writers. And most of us write in a different voice for different situations. You write differently in your instagram stories than you do in your senior thesis. You send a different type of email to your boss, than you do your best friend from home. We are all literary chameleons, and I think it's fascinating. It's just a continuation of the idea that we are so many things, all the time. And I know it can be really overwhelming, figuring out who to be, and when. Who you are now, and how to act, in order to get where you want to go.

I have some good news; it's totally up to you.

I have some terrifying news; it's totally up to you."

"In your life, you will inevitably: misspeak, trust the wrong person, underreact, overreact, hurt the people who didn't deserve it, overthink, not think at all, self-sabotage, create a reality where only your experience exists, ruin perfectly good moments for yourself and others, deny any wrong doing, not take the steps to make it right, feel very guilty, let the guilt eat at you, hit rock bottom, finally address the pain you caused, try to do better next time, rinse, repeat.

And I'm not going to lie. These mistakes will cause you to lose things. I'm trying to tell you that losing things doesn't just mean losing. A lot of the times, when we lose things, we gain things too."

"The scary news is; you're on your own now.

But the cool news is; you're on your own now."

You're on your own, kid. You always have been.

[aquamarine-moonlitpool]

Full transcript

“I won’t tell you what to do because no one likes that. I will, however, give you some life hacks I wish I knew when I was starting out my dreams of a career, and navigating life, love, pressure, choices, shame, hope and friendship.”

[federal-reserve-bonds-dog]

New York University said it is withholding the diploma of a student who delivered an unapproved commencement speech to address what he called the "atrocities currently happening in Palestine" during the Israel-Hamas war.

The university quickly condemned the speech delivered by student Logan Rozos.

https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2025/may/statement-by-nyu-spokesperson-john-beckman.html

[othernonsense]

thinking about the goofy ass situation that is taylor swift’s nyu commencement address. take a walk with me for a moment.

you’re 22. you’ve just graduated from the new york university. you worked your ass off to get in, worked your ass off for the four years after that, and paid a FUCK TON of money because we live in a capitalist hellscape and it’s nyu. you’re on top of the world.

now it’s time for the commencement speech. previous speakers include the former president of the United States, a Supreme Court justice, and the attorney behind a key same sex marriage case. and who is it this year? taylor swift. ok. previous speakers also include pharrell williams and alec baldwin so maybe it’s just one of those years.

then, ms. swift proceeds to make a half an hour long speech in which she only makes profound observations if she can connect them back to her own music. she then references her next album and dips.

ok. that was… weird. but it’s over now (insert taylor swift reference here.) but wait, what’s this? taylor, musician and speech-giver extraordinaire, has suddenly been granted an honorary degree from the school that you just dedicated 4 years of your life and several hundred thousand dollars to.

Neat. Cool. Excellent. If I was NYU class of 2020, Taylor Swift would be to me as Tony Stark is to every MCU villain. The villain origin story. The final straw.

[higashioka]

god it annoys me to no end when i see nyu grads getting to have their commencement at yankee stadium. you don't deserve that. fuck you

[swiftieli]

3 years , Taylor Swift received a Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa, from NYU and delivered the commencement address for the Class of 2022.

[tayfabe75]

"I started writing songs when I was twelve and since then, it's been the compass guiding my life, and in turn, my life guided my writing. Everything I do is just an extension of my writing, whether it's directing videos or a short film, creating the visuals for a tour, or standing on stage performing. Everything is connected by my love of the craft, the thrill of working through ideas and narrowing them down and polishing it all up in the end. Editing. Waking up in the middle of the night and throwing out the old idea because you just thought of a newer, better one. A plot device that ties the whole thing together. There's a reason they call it a hook. Sometimes a string of words just ensnares me and I can't focus on anything until it's been recorded or written down."

May 18, 2022: During her commencement speech for NYU, Taylor describes the various aspects of her career as extensions of her writing. (source 1, 2)

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lauren Mascarenhas at CNN:

The 2025 class president of MIT was barred from attending her graduation ceremony on Friday after delivering a speech denouncing the war in Gaza at a commencement event the day before. Megha Vemuri told CNN that after her speech, the university’s senior leadership informed her she was not allowed to attend Friday’s commencement ceremony and was barred from campus until the event concluded. Vemuri will still receive her degree, an MIT spokesperson told CNN. “What I am dealing with right now is absolutely nothing compared to the people of Palestine, and I’d take on much more if it meant helping their cause,” Vemuri told CNN Sunday. The class president was a scheduled speaker at Thursday’s OneMIT Commencement ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she took to the podium, a keffiyeh – a symbol of pro-Palestinian solidarity – draped over her graduation robe. She praised her peers for protesting the war in Gaza and criticized the university’s ties to Israel. Tensions over university protests against the war in Gaza have come to a head at this year’s graduation ceremonies. New York University recently said it was withholding the diploma of a student who condemned “genocide” in Gaza while delivering a graduation speech. Alongside students at NYU, Harvard, Columbia and other universities nationwide, MIT students set up protest encampments last spring to denounce the war in Gaza, facing disciplinary threats from the university.

2025 MIT class President Megha Vemuri was barred for attending the school’s graduation ceremony for using her commencement speech to righteously criticize her school’s complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza and praised her peers who protested the Gaza Genocide.

See Also:

Hindustan Times: Indian-American student Megha Vemuri calls out Gaza genocide in graduation speech: ‘MIT wants a free Palestine’

MassLive: MIT bans class president who gave pro-Palestine speech from commencement

[chickawah23]

Parallels: Fabric, Stitching, Patchwork

I feel like the magic fabric from The Black Dog is where they embroidered the memories of the time she was away in loml. And the single thread of gold from invisible string is what they used to embroider those memories. And she’s fastening herself with a stitch from Glitch to that magic fabric like a patch. And they be able to patch it up good after making a confession in False God.

“That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming” - The Black Dog

“We embroidered the memories of the time I was away stitching” - loml

“One single thread of gold tied me to you.” - Invisible string

“Five seconds later I’m fastening myself to you with a stitch.” - Glitch

“Hell is when I fight with you. But we can patch it up good. Make confessions and we’re begging for forgiveness.” - False God

The patch imagery and the whole stitching thing reminded me of Taylor’s NYU commencement speech.

“We are each a patchwork quilt of those who have loved us, those who have believed in our futures, those who showed us empathy and kindness or told us the truth even when it wasn’t easy to hear.”

Listen to the bridge of Dress against this NYU quote.

[thebreakfastgenie]

Not reblogging it but I saw a post complaining about Taylor Swift getting an honorary NYU degree when she was the commencement speaker and I am baffled that OP didn't know this is normal. Colleges always give their commencement speakers honorary degrees unless they're already alumni. Go to a celebrity wikipedia page sometime a lot of them have huge lists of honorary degrees. Honorary degrees don't mean anything. No one cares. No one is going around acting like Taylor Swift went to NYU.

[forabeatofadrum]

Ever After (7/21)

AO3 | S&C

--

CHALLENGE

Kurt and Blaine aren’t completely left to their own devices. No, they are traveling in a carriage with a couple of soldiers. The carriage is very plain and the soldiers are also dressed as ranchers and farmer to avoid suspicion.

They’re going east, through the woods. That’s where Kurt was found. Kurt spoke about an evil liar and they want to find it. There may be some clues here. There are no other leads that they can follow.

Blaine says goodbye to his parents and sends some birds to his friends, telling them that is out of Castle Town for an unforeseeable time.

The trip starts very uneventful. Kurt and Blaine are sat next together in the carriage and wait. Maybe Blaine should’ve brought something to read after all.

It’s Kurt who speaks first.

“Tell me about yourself,” Kurt says.

Blaine raises an eyebrow.

“Didn’t you already read all about me in your books?” he asks, although admitting that that’s a possibility makes Blaine uneasy. But if The Cooper Chronicles are real, then Kurt should know about Blaine. He knows the Pink Dagger’s name, after all, so Blaine’s existence shouldn’t be as shocking.

“You were born between the first two books,” Kurt says back, “After the king remarried. You were seven when the series ended and you were barely in it because you were at home at the Castle. Let’s just say that B.D. Dalton didn’t spend too much time on you.”

That stings a bit. Blaine knows he’s fine with being in Cooper’s shadow, but Kurt calling him almost insignificant is rude.

“My name is Blaine, as you know. I am twenty years old. I like alchemy and reading and watching Zooms with my friends. Uh. I don’t know what else there is to say.”

When Blaine puts it plainly like that, he does sound boring and insignificant.

Oh God, is Blaine insignificant because he was written that way? He’s never done anything interesting in his life. He just exists, doing mundane things! Is this all he’s ever meant to be?

Blaine pushes that thought away. He still as no reason to believe he was created by some man for a fictional book series.

But now this is gnawing at him.

“What is your Passion?” Kurt asks, “Everyone in Daltonia has one.”

“I am still figuring that out,” Blaine says earnestly. Then he has an idea. “What would your Passion be, if you were a Daltonian?”

“Tailoring,” Kurt answers immediately, “Like Silva.”

“How- Never mind.”

Blaine wants to ask how Kurt knows Silva’s name, since many do not know the royal tailor’s name, but Kurt would answer with The Cooper Chronicles.

“Are you a tailor in your world?” Blaine asks.

“Sort of. I am a fashion student at NYU,” Kurt answers and it once again means nothing to Blaine.

Kurt must’ve realised, so he starts explaining how education works in the kingdom of New York. (Or New kingdom of York? Blaine’s not sure.)

They chat about small things, both hovering around what is really going on, but it is also nice to talk to Kurt about stuff like his degree, his roommates, Blaine’s potions, Blaine’s friends, and what not.

Their little moment definitely get interrupted when the carriage starts shaking. It’s a challenge to hold on to anything and they can hear screaming from the outside. Blaine’s soldiers are in danger.

Blaine forces the door open, but it immediately gets slammed shut.

“Stay inside!” one of the soldiers order.

Kurt and Blaine hold on to each other as they hear a battle commence. Soldiers cry out, horses are neighing. The carriage is going full speed with Kurt and Blaine inside.

Until it comes to an abrupt halt.

Kurt and Blaine are sitting in silence. Blaine can feel his heart beating uncontrollably.

They wait for more orders, or any other sign, but it doesn’t come.

“I… I think… we need to go out,” Kurt suggests, although he sounds unsure.

Blaine nods.

Slowly they get out of the carriage and to their absolute shock, they’re alone. No soldiers. No horses. Kurt jumps out of the carriage to inspect.

“There’s… food. All our stuff is still here.”

“What happened?” Blaine asks, looking around for his men. He’s heard cries. They’re in pain, and Blaine has healing potions, but there’s no one in sight.

“I don’t know,” Kurt sounds stumped, “But we can continue our journey.”

“You want to continue?” Blaine asks, aghast. Blaine wants to go home immediately and see if everyone’s safe.

“Blaine. I have a bad feeling.”

“Same. Which is why we must go home.”

Kurt shakes his head.

“No. I mean. Isn’t it strange that we are unscathed, and our stuff is intact. It’s as if someone’s trying to separate us from your staff.”

“Which is not good!”

“I know,” Kurt holds up his hands. He sees that Blaine is stressed. “But I think that if we return, they will try to separate us again and again. Someone needs us.”

“You just want to go home!” Blaine argues, “But I need to check on my people! I am a Royal!”

“Okay,” Kurt relents, “But I will go on.”

And that renders Blaine speechless. He cannot let Kurt go on his own.

So he gives in. He helps Kurt pack their supplies and together they make their way deeper into the woods.

--

“Blaine! Look!”

Kurt’s pointing at something in the distance. They’ve been walking aimlessly throughout the woods, but it may have paid off.

“I think that’s the liar where they kept me.”

It does look like a stereotypically evil liar. It also looks extremely deserted.

Blaine has no combat training. He only has his Royal magic. He needs to be cautious, but Kurt immediately runs in.

“What in the world…” Blaine mutters. Kurt really is going into everything head-first.

They scope out the liar and it is indeed empty. Kurt is uneasy.

“This. This is it. This is definitely where they…”

“Hurt you?”

Kurt nods and he looks pained.

“You mentioned experiments, right?”

But Kurt walks away to explore more, without answering. Blaine gets it. Kurt must’ve experienced something that is difficult to think about, and the thought of that alone already makes Blaine shudder.

Blaine follows Kurt to the dungeons, where the cells are.

“Something is not right.”

“No kidding,” Blaine answers. A stereotypically evil looking liar in the woods? No one knew about this!

“No, I mean… Look!”

Kurt points towards the locks. They’re heavy.

“What is it?”

“I told you a guard left the door unlocked. But this place is so creepy, and vast. I… think they let me out by choice.”

“A good guard?” Blaine wonders.

But Kurt shakes his head.

“What if they wanted me to leave? What if they needed to see something.”

The two walk silently across the room. All cells are empty.

Except one.

On the floor lies a book with a colourful cover. A painting of a young, smiling boy, and three other kids is printed on it. The words ‘The Cooper Chronicles: The Seed of Time’ are written on above the picture, in a big, golden font.

“It’s the first book of The Cooper Chronicles,” Kurt says.

Oh, what did Blaine get himself into?

[taylortruther]

do you think ttpd is going to be a breakup album with only sad songs? or do you think she can bring some tracks with a more positive perspective on empowerment, maybe rebirth/self-love again?

i only see tracks on this theme being in the happiness style cause i feel that she’ll focus more on the reflective and sad part. like idk if she would risk putting more positive music given that, if im not mistaken, the cohesion of the red was criticized precisely for this: having very “lively” tracks (not only in the sound but in the lyrics as well) in the middle of sadness. i think that maybe her “clear rebirth” will only happen in the next album

i don't think it'll only be sad breakup songs, no! i think she will do a lot of self-reflection about the breakup but also other topics, like her relationship with fame/public opinion, her intuition and grit and ambition, her "betting on herself." i think we might still hear about the masters, but moreso about how she's come to embrace change, and her past selves.

i'm looking to the nyu commencement speech, dear reader, ylm, and wcs when imagining the messages of ttpd.

i'm interested to see how this appears in ttpd:

In your life, you will inevitably misspeak, trust the wrong people, under-react, overreact, hurt the people who didn’t deserve it, overthink, not think at all, self sabotage, create a reality where only your experience exists, ruin perfectly good moments for yourself and others, deny any wrongdoing, not take the steps to make it right, feel very guilty, let the guilt eat at you, hit rock bottom, finally address the pain you caused, try to do better next time, rinse, repeat.  And I’m not gonna lie, these mistakes will cause you to lose things.

[tswiftrecall]

🗓 18th May 2022: Taylor gave a commencement speech at NYU's 2022 ceremony.