No valedictorian speech. No movie star audio system. No main-stage ceremony, and no large graduate stroll to “Pomp and Circumstance” earlier than tens of hundreds of friends.
As an alternative, USC’s graduating seniors are being thrown another celebration Thursday night time, a “Trojan Household Graduate Celebration,” on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on the eve of smaller campus graduation ceremonies the place diplomas are set to be awarded at particular person college occasions.
The Thursday night time occasion was billed as an “electrical environment” — capped to 6 tickets per grad most — that includes a drone present, fireworks and a “particular present” for the Class of 2024: a hat from Travis Scott’s collegiate clothes model.
The college had pitched it as a “Southern California-style” celebration to compensate for the lack of the standard main-stage ceremony with a a valedictorian and keynote speeches and the presentation of honorary levels. However turmoil and campus protests over the Israel-Hamas battle upended the ritual.
Citing unspecified security threats, USC President Carol Folt rescinded pro-Palestinian valedictorian Asna Tabassum’s talking slot after which canceled the primary ceremony. After college students arrange a pro-Palestinian tent encampment and demanded that USC divest its monetary ties with Israel, Folt and her group referred to as within the Los Angeles Police Division, and 93 had been arrested. On Sunday morning, police cleared a second encampment, however no arrests had been made.
On Wednesday, USC President Carol Folt and Provost Andrew Guzman had been censured by the Educational Senate, a physique of representatives for USC college. The members cited “widespread dissatisfaction and concern among the many college about administrative actions and selections surrounding protests and graduation.”
Folt has defended her actions and stated in an interview with The Occasions that campus security is her “North Star.”
“For me, I’ve a really clear North Star: that I’m the particular person on the college, regardless of how difficult the problem and the way a lot I empathize with all people concerned — which has been true for me — I nonetheless ultimately have to take a seat again and say, ‘What can I do to maintain my campus and my individuals as protected as attainable?’”
Usually, the annual Baccalaureate Ceremony — a nondenominational, interfaith celebration — is held on the eve of commencement at Bovard Auditorium within the middle of campus. This 12 months an “in-person blessing” is deliberate for the Coliseum bash, in addition to an “on-line interfaith blessing” that may be seen on a graduation web site.
Safety on the Coliseum main as much as graduation on campus was tight.
On Thursday, entry to USC’s campus, which was already restricted to USC college students, college, workers and registered friends, turned even stricter. College students and workers needed to present USC identification, and anybody else making an attempt to entry campus wanted a graduation ticket.
Steel fences and black gates had been posted round campus. Company walked by means of steel detectors and had been requested to hold clear purses or baggage. For the reason that Sunday encampment sweep, USC officers from a number of regulation enforcement businesses have been stationed on the middle of campus.
“They embody officers from the Baldwin Park Police Division, La Habra Police Division, Los Angeles Police Division and Los Angeles Airport Police,” based on David Carlisle, assistant chief of the college’s Division of Public Security.
