As graduation season arrives, an increasing number of universities are tightening control over students’ speeches. These changes have been noticed by Upper School (US) students at MFS and have sparked conversations about whether or not political statements should be made at events like graduation.
This year, many colleges, such as New York University (NYU), have changed policies to require pre-recorded student commencement speeches at school-level ceremonies rather than live ones.
This decision was implemented to prevent unexpected political statements following controversies at their 2025 ceremonies, in which NYU graduate Logan Rozos went off-script to condemn the war in Gaza, leading to his diploma being withheld.
For recently-graduated MFS alum and upcoming NYU freshman Dean Simpson ’26, this news was “disappointing” and “concerning.”
“I think it takes away from the authenticity of graduation because no one wants to watch a video of a speech. And I can’t believe they took [Rozos’s] diploma away because he made a political statement about Israel-Palestine,” said Simpson.
Simpson’s statements were echoed by fellow classmate Ali Sabir ’26.
“It’s completely wrong. [Rozos] had earned not just the diploma, but the right to speak. You cannot take that away,” said Sabir.
Sabir added that the issue runs deeper than any single incident. “At this point in particular, but at any point in history, attempting to censor the speech of students is almost always wrong. The handful of exceptions are when there’s hate speech being promoted. But colleges have almost always been a breeding ground for the opposite,” said Sabir.
Similar to NYU, the College of Staten Island (CSI) has mandated pre-recorded commencement speeches to avoid unexpected political speech during the ceremony. This decision resulted in faculty taping their mouths in protest and chants of “let them speak!”
Luke Iacono ’25, an MFS alumnus and current student at Pomona College, reflected on whether or not colleges should place limits on student commencement speeches.
“Colleges [should] place limits on political speech during graduation ceremonies [as] long as [those limits] don’t violate the First Amendment,” said Iacono.
Additionally, Iacono stated that abiding by the First Amendment meant colleges could not censor speakers simply because they disagreed with their viewpoints; however, they should never allow flagrant hate speech. Iacono also highlighted how his own college, Pomona, is required to abide by California’s Leonard’s Law, which extends First Amendment protections to private institutions in the state. This means that the state of California is the only state that legally applies First Amendment free speech protections to students at public and private institutions.
At MFS, the process for selecting student commencement speakers differs from that of many other high schools in the area. Rather than granting that position to class valedictorians, MFS selects its commencement speakers through a class vote, as MFS does not have class ranks.
On April 28, 2026, an email from Will Miller, Upper School Dean of Students, was sent to the US community announcing this year’s commencement speakers as Ali Sabir ’26 and Chloe Marshall ’26.
Sabir explained that US Director Noah Rachlin gave Marshall and him the month of May to figure out their speeches before Rachlin would review them. Sabir expressed how he “hope[d] [Rachlin didn’t] need to cut anything from [his and Marshall’s] speeches.” When asked about any MFS students who have had parts of their speech cut in the past, he explained that he “[has] not heard of it.”
Reflecting on his own commencement speech, Sabir stated that he did not plan to include political statements, but he expressed how current events are “disappointing” to see.
“We have a clear precedent establishing that students are the exact people you want to be talking about civil rights and that commencement speeches, graduation speeches, [and] large public gatherings are exactly the places to be talking about social [and political] issues,” said Sabir.
