Protest at Boğaziçi graduation: Diploma dispute and applause in solidarity

The graduation ceremony of the Philosophy Department at Boğaziçi University came to the fore with the tension experienced during the presentation of diplomas. A student who was supposed to come to the podium to receive his diploma refused to take a photo with the academician appointed during the trustee rector period. According to allegations, the student did not want to take a photo with academician Yasin Ramazan Başaran, who is considered to be close to the government and characterized as a "parachute" due to his appointment during the Naci İnci period. This attitude suddenly turned the silent and orderly course of the ceremony into an area of tension and was noticed by others in the hall.

In response to the refusal to take a photo, the academician Yasin Ramazan Başaran began to make things difficult for the student while he was receiving his diploma. The academician's attitude of avoiding extending the diploma or behaving reluctantly in shaking the student's hand put the student, who was excited and stressed about graduation, in a difficult situation. This moment of physical and indirect psychological pressure, which lasted for a short time for the student to receive his diploma comfortably, went down in records as the most sensational moment of the ceremony. The academician's behavior revealed how the political distance between the student and himself was reflected in an institutional ceremony.

In response to this tension at the podium, a reaction from the rest of the hall was heard without much delay. Against Başaran's resistance and difficulty in giving the diploma, other students attending the graduation ceremony did not remain silent. Friends attending the ceremony began to fill the hall with applause to support the graduate student who was in a difficult situation. This sound of common solidarity protested the academician's bullying while also declaring their stance by the side of the student who decided not to take a photo.

This incident was evaluated as a reflection of the long-standing debates about rector appointments and academic autonomy at Boğaziçi University. The appointed trustee rectors and the academicians brought to duty by these rectors are viewed as "irregular" and "political" by a large part of the students and faculty members. Such ruptures at graduation ceremonies turn into events that reveal the depth of political polarization within the institution, not just on days when academic achievements are celebrated. The act of not taking a photo became a silent yet effective demonstration of this political stance.

As a result, the student was able to obtain his diploma after this process filled with difficulty and applause. However, this part of the ceremony was etched in memories in the Boğaziçi University community as an "eventful graduation." The discussion of the incident on social media and in academic circles shows how fragile the relationship between the university administration and the student community still is. While receiving his diploma, the student, who reckoned not only with an academician but also with the management understanding represented, crowned this stance with applause. Such events prove once again that university ceremonies are not just academic formalities, but also arenas where social and political messages are conveyed.