The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead said Thursday that he would not give the commencement address at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on May 18 as planned, citing the administration’s decision to call the police on campus protesters. “I was looking forward to speaking next week at UMass Amherst,” Mr. Whitehead wrote on the social network Bluesky. I have to withdraw as your commencement speaker. The school said that the ceremony would proceed without a commencement speaker. “We respect Mr. Whitehead’s position and regret that he will not be addressing the Class of 2024,” Ed Blaguszewski, a spokesman for the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said in a statement.

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Persons: Colson Whitehead, “, ” Mr, Whitehead, ” Michael Goldsmith, Ed Blaguszewski Organizations: University of Massachusetts Amherst, UMass Amherst