USC introduced Thursday that it’s canceling its principal Could graduation ceremony, capping a dramatic collection of strikes that started final week after it knowledgeable valedictorian Asna Tabassum, who had been opposed by pro-Israel teams, that she wouldn’t be delivering the normal speech.
In ending the university-wide Could 10 commencement ceremony altogether, President Carol Folt aimed to quell the controversy that grew as the college chipped away at core elements of the ritual, drawing criticism from each pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel activists.
The cancellation happened amid unrest on college campuses throughout the nation stemming from the Israel-Hamas warfare. On Wednesday at a pro-Palestinian encampment at USC, 93 college students and off-campus activists have been arrested.
“With the brand new security measures in place this yr, the time wanted to course of the massive variety of visitors coming to campus will improve considerably,” USC mentioned in its announcement. “Because of this, we will be unable to host the principle stage ceremony that historically brings 65,000 college students, households, and pals to our campus all on the similar time and through a brief window from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.”
A college spokesman didn’t reply to a request to interview Folt, who has not spoken publicly in regards to the cancellations.
At the very least 23 satellite tv for pc commencement ceremonies at USC’s colleges and faculties will proceed as scheduled, along with smaller departmental receptions.
“We perceive that that is disappointing; nevertheless, we’re including many new actions and celebrations to make this graduation academically significant, memorable, and uniquely USC, together with locations to assemble with household, pals, college, and employees, the celebratory releasing of the doves, and performances by the Trojan Marching Band,” USC mentioned in an announcement.
The college additionally introduced that it’s going to require tickets for “all graduation occasions going down on Could 8-11” and direct “all campus entry by particular factors of entry.”
It mentioned that tickets can be restricted to eight per graduating pupil and that they might not be transferable.
“There might be an attraction course of if extra tickets are wanted,” mentioned the letter, which added that graduation occasions would come with a safety screening “much like these for attending athletic occasions on the Coliseum.” Company on the Coliseum enter by a steel detector and their luggage are X-rayed. USC additionally mentioned solely clear luggage can be allowed at commencement occasions.
Since citing unspecified safety threats as the explanation for canceling Tabassum’s speech, USC has seen a collection of on-campus protests, together with this week’s pro-Palestinian encampment.
College officers had adopted their cancellation of Tabassum’s speech by calling off a speech by movie director Jon M. Chu and appearances on the principle stage by honorary doctorate recipients, together with tennis legend Billie Jean King, saying they needed to “maintain the deal with our graduates.”
Among the smaller graduation ceremonies will nonetheless host keynote audio system, together with King, who’s scheduled to deal with Annenberg College for Communication and Journalism graduates on Could 10.
King has not responded to interview requests from The Instances.
Nationwide Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, who was additionally disadvantaged of the possibility to obtain an honorary diploma on the principle stage, is scheduled to ship a Could 10 keynote speech to graduates of the USC Sol Value College of Public Coverage.
Through an NEA spokeswoman, Value declined an interview request.
Actor and activist Sean Penn can even nonetheless give a Could 11 deal with to graduates of the Alfred E. Mann College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, in line with his consultant.
The final time the principle USC graduation was canceled was in 2020 after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. These graduates participated in on-line and in-person ceremonies the following yr, together with the Class of 2021.
“This can be a relatively uncommon graduation, to place it in apparent phrases,” mentioned Donal Manahan, a USC biologist who has been the college marshal for the principle stage ceremony since 2016. “It’s the entire nation going by it.”
William Tierney, a college professor emeritus at USC’s Rossier College of Training and an professional in larger schooling coverage and administration, mentioned he blames Folt for the college’s failure to have interaction “in tough dialogues.”
“This president hasn’t even made an announcement. She’s gone. She’s invisible,” he mentioned. As a substitute, he added, “the college has decided it’s a harmful place and locked it down. … And now we’ll cancel the principle graduation as a result of it’s so harmful for us to have a dialogue.”
“We may defend the Obamas once they got here to campus,” Tierney mentioned, referring to former President Obama and his spouse attending their daughter Sasha’s commencement final yr. “We may defend the campus at different occasions. However now it’s just too harmful? That simply fails the management check throughout the board.”
USC junior Lawrence Sung mentioned he was upset to not have an opportunity to rejoice his graduating pals on the principal stage occasion.
“This can be a large overreaction,” mentioned Sung, who research worldwide relations. “If USC was to decide on the worst possibility at each step of the best way on this controversy, this is able to be it.”
The saga at USC started April 15, when Provost Andrew T. Guzman launched a campus-wide letter citing unnamed threats that got here after the college introduced Tabassum because the valedictorian and a scheduled speaker. Guzman mentioned the assaults have been of an “alarming tenor” and “escalated to the purpose of making substantial dangers referring to safety and disruption at graduation.”
Guzman didn’t say what the threats have been or who was focused. A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Division informed The Instances that the company had no crime studies concerning violent threats focusing on Tabassum or the graduation ceremony.
The complaints centered on a hyperlink on Tabassum’s Instagram profile to a pro-Palestinian web site that mentioned, “Zionism is a racist settler-colonialist ideology,” and “One Palestinian state would imply Palestinian liberation and the whole abolishment of the state of Israel” in order that “each Arabs and Jews can dwell collectively.”
Tabassum has denied she helps antisemitic views and mentioned she is being singled out as a hijab-wearing Muslim lady.
Then final Friday, USC known as off an look by Chu — the director of “Loopy Wealthy Asians” — and different graduation honorees. In canceling these occasions, USC cited “the extremely publicized circumstances surrounding our principal stage graduation program.”
In an interview previous to Thursday’s announcement of the principle stage cancellation, Joel Curran, USC’s senior vp of communications, mentioned the choice about Chu and honorary diploma recipients was made in an effort to keep away from placing them “in an ungainly state of affairs” to deal with the valedictorian controversy or the Israel-Hamas warfare.
“We’re placing them in an ungainly state of affairs, tough state of affairs. There have been quite a lot of conversations round graduation. We don’t wish to put them in that place,” Curran mentioned.
Final week, 11 members of the Advisory Committee on Muslim Life at USC — greater than half the membership — resigned in protest of the choice on Tabassum. Folt had convened the group in mid-2023 amid complaints of anti-Muslim bias on campus.
USC is one in all dozens of schools and universities the place tensions have grown in latest weeks over free speech and protest over the Israel-Hamas warfare, together with Columbia, Yale, UC Berkeley and Cal Poly Humboldt.
In its Oct. 7 assault on Israel, Hamas militants killed about 1,200 individuals and took roughly 240 hostages. Gaza well being authorities say Israel’s retaliatory warfare has killed greater than 34,000 Palestinians. In response to the United Nations, 2 million Gazans reside in near-famine circumstances.
Instances employees writers Angie Orellana Hernandez and Jenna Peterson contributed to this report.
