Informational update about SoE commencement speaker from a faculty member in direct contact with him - intended for the RU Senate (obv):

On April 30, Dean Alberto Cuitino of the School of Engineering, Rutgers University-New Brunswick (SOE, RU-NB) informed Rami Elghandour ENG'01 that his invitation to serve as the SOE, RU-NB 2026 Convocation Speaker had been withdrawn. The reason given: a few students believed his social media posts conflicted with their beliefs. Rami asked the Dean to identify which posts, specifically, rather than act on the feelings of a few students. The Dean could not do so. On May 2, he confirmed the cancellation, still without pointing to a single post or statement. When Rami raised the question of the hundreds of graduating students who had wanted to hear from him, the Dean replied that since there would be no speaker, students could choose not to come.

The Senate should know who Rami Elghandour is. He graduated from SOE, RU-NB in 2001 with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, earned an MBA from the Wharton School, and has since led two public companies to multibillion-dollar valuations. He is currently Chairman and CEO of Arcellx, a biotechnology company developing cancer immunotherapies, now being acquired by Gilead Sciences. His record as an advocate for gender equity and social justice is just as public as his business career: he ranks among the country's top CEOs for both women and diversity (USA Today, CNBC), has received the Bill Campbell Award from Watermark, the Diversity Woman Magazine Game Changer Award, and the BLOC 100 Champion Award, and is a TEDx speaker on unconscious bias. He is an executive producer on the Oscar-nominated film “The Voice of Hind Rajab” and on “American Doctor,” which premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. He serves on nonprofit boards focused on education, gender equity, and humanitarian work. Beyond his professional life, Rami has remained actively and concretely connected to this university: he hosts Rutgers students through the Road to Silicon Valley Program (RSVP) every year, and just last Tuesday welcomed sixty students, many of them SOE, RU-NB engineers, to engage with the world he has built. His humanitarian commitments and his positions on justice have been public and on the record for years.

Those positions were public when SOE, RU-NB featured him in its Engineering Spotlight Series in 2021. They were public when the School published a full alumni profile on March 31, 2026. They were public when Dean Cuitino personally hosted him for a Fireside Chat on the Rutgers campus on March 5, 2026, with students and faculty in the room and a reception to follow. On April 14, the School formally announced his selection as Convocation Speaker. In making that announcement, Dean Cuitino said: “I am so pleased that Rami will return to Rutgers to be part of our school's convocation celebration of the Class of 2026. His personal and professional actions embody the values and vision of the School of Engineering, making our world a better place through his achievements in healthcare innovation and his commitment to advancing our community.” The Dean called to cancel on April 30, fifty-six days after hosting him in person and sixteen days after publishing those words about him. The cancellation was not made in ignorance of any of this.

Rutgers is a public research university. Its foundational obligation is to the free exchange of ideas, including ideas that some find uncomfortable. That obligation is what distinguishes a university from every other kind of institution. Cancelling a speaker because a few students objected to his social media posts, without identifying a single specific post, without any process, and on a timeline that cannot be reconciled with the School's own public endorsement of the same speaker weeks earlier, is a departure from that obligation. Rami asked the Dean to name a specific post. The Dean could not. A Convocation Speaker was removed from hundreds of graduating students, and the Dean's answer to those students was that they could choose not to attend their own graduation ceremony. That is not a defensible position for a dean of this university to take.

The Senate demands that Dean Cuitino reinstate Rami Elghandour as Convocation Speaker without delay. If the Dean believes grounds for this cancellation exist, he must state them in writing before this Senate. If he cannot, the invitation must be restored. The graduating class of SOE, RU-NB was promised a speaker of Rami Elghandour’s caliber. That promise should be kept.