About two-thirds of the way through my daughter’s commencement last week on a vast lawn at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, undergraduate student body president Megha Vemuri went off script. She brought up the ongoing one-sided war in Gaza and criticized MIT for not doing more. And she used the word that divides the proverbial room — “genocide.”

A staid ceremony suddenly turned acrimonious. Jewish students left their seats in search of their parents. Some turned their backs, yelling “shame!” Supporters of Vemuri waved Palestinian flags. And then Vemuri returned to the approved script. She congratulated her fellow graduates and relinquished the podium to President Sally Kornbluth , who calmly tried to restore order.

“Listen, folks. At MIT, we value freedom of expression, but

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