Virginia Commonwealth University is withholding the diploma of a Palestinian American student because of her campus activism. In a hearing Tuesday, officials examined the case of VCU student Sereen Haddad, who was told she would not receive her diploma at her graduation this year because of her participation in a peaceful memorial commemorating violent police arrests at a student encampment for Palestine in 2024. Sereen Haddad is the daughter of Tariq Haddad, a cardiologist who grew up in Gaza. Dr. Haddad made headlines last year for rejecting an invitation to meet with then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken because of the Biden administration's support for Israel's actions in Gaza. The Haddads have lost more than 200 members of their extended family in the nearly two-year-long assault.
We speak to the duo about the repression and retaliation that Sereen has faced for her student activism as she awaits a final decision by the university on the conferral of her degree. "Whatever VCU decides, I have made peace with the fact that I don't need a university who is materially invested in a genocide's approval," she tells Democracy Now! "I am on the right side of history, and I don't need a university to tell me that."
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