NEW YORK–Columbia University’s acting president defended higher education and acknowledged the absence of Mahmoud Khalil during the school’s commencement ceremony, as pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested outside the school’s main gates.

NEW YORK (AP) — The head of Columbia University gave a commencement speech Wednesday acknowledging the absence of student activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was due to receive his diploma this week but is instead in a Louisiana jail facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests.