Rutgers University has canceled one of its graduation speakers for the school of Engineering commencement ceremony over his past social media posts.
Rami Elghandour, a biotech entrepreneur and university alum, was supposed to give the speech to engineering graduates next week, but the school has done an about-face, canceling his appearance after some students raised concerns about his criticism of Israel.
“I feel like they made a huge mistake and its a disservice to the students and the country,” Elghandour over Zoom.
The university released a statement saying that a number of students had decided not to attend the graduation ceremony over the Elghandour’s posts. Officials spoke to the speaker about them, ultimately deciding to rescind the invitation.
“This decision keeps the focus on our engineering students and honors the celebratory spirit of the event to ensure that no graduate feels forced to choose between their personal convictions and a convocation ceremony,” the statement read.
The university statement linked to Elghandour’s post on X, where he weights in on the war in Gaza, saying in part Israel’s actions amount to genocide.
Elghandour, who was first made aware of the concerns last week, said he strongly disagrees with the university’s position.
“They have about 1,000 students graduating. A “few” sounds like five to me. So the idea that we’re gonna change the ceremony for a handful of students, seemed challenging for me to accept. So I pushed back and said what if now the other students don’t want to come?”
One such engineering student agreed.
“I think that’s messed up,” Rutgers student Arpan Sheth said Thursday.
The university just a few months ago wrote an article on Elghandour. The California-based CEO said his speech is not focused all that much on politics, instead on kindness.
“I think someone asked me and said after this would you consider coming to speak? If they ask me to speak, I will, because the students deserve to hear it one way or the other,” Elghandour said.