when they Cancelled In a pro-Palestinian valedictorian’s graduation speech, USC officials aimed to defuse tensions on campus during the Israel-Hamas war.
Instead, the decision by President Carol Folt to cancel the speaking time at the valedictorian ceremony sparked more controversy and further embroiled the university in debates over student activism, free speech, and the like. antisemitism and anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hatred.
On Wednesday, a large number of protesters gathered near the historic Tommy Trojan statue, some calling for Folt to move out of the way as an argument broke out between opposing sides.
Dozens of student groups have signed a letter to administrators, saying they are “angry and embarrassed” at the university, which defended the cancellation by citing unspecified threats to campus safety. In another petition, more than 130 faculty members signed a letter to Folt, saying his move “impedes open communication.”
USC senior Caroline Ashe, 22, is a global health major. (Gennaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Some students are planning a “silent march” for Thursday afternoon, when they will wear masks and hoodies to express their view that the university has “abandoned” them, says Asna Tabassum, the valedictorian. Is being silenced.
A student holds a Palestinian flag during a march on the USC campus in support of Asna Tabassum.
(Wally Scalise/Los Angeles Times)
Rabbi Dov Wagner, who leads the Chabad Jewish Center at USC and is among those who expressed outrage over the university’s selection of Tabassum as valedictorian, said, “I’ve been here 24 years.” “There’s never been this much tension.”
Before the controversy began, the only public indication of Tabassum’s political beliefs was a link to a pro-Palestinian website on her Instagram profile. But pro-Israel groups labeled her anti-Semitic because of the anti-Israel content on the site and said she should not have been allowed to speak at the graduation ceremony, or should have been named valedictorian.
Folt has not spoken publicly about the decision to cancel Tabassum’s speech. Provost Andrew Guzman, speaking at the monthly Academic Senate faculty meeting on Wednesday, Said Student-run news site Annenberg Media reported that the decision was not the administration’s “first choice”, but that they were “largely relieved” by it.
The university referred questions about security to Errol Southers, USC’s associate senior vice president for security and risk assurance. Southers declined an interview request Wednesday.
Callen Hicks, an 18-year-old freshman at USC, is majoring in journalism. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Responding to a question about whether USC reported the threats to police from the beginning, Los Angeles police spokeswoman Captain Kelly Muniz said the department had “no crime report or additional information in this case.”
University officials selected Tabassum, a biomedical engineering graduate who minored in genocide resistance, from a group of about 100 applicants with a GPA of 3.98 or higher. The title comes with an invitation to deliver a 3 to 5-minute speech to an audience of approximately 65,000 at a campuswide commencement ceremony on May 10.
USC students gathered to march on campus in support of Asana Tabassum.
(Wally Scalise/Los Angeles Times)
The website linked on Tabassum’s Instagram page states that “Zionism is a racist colonialist ideology” and that the movement’s founders believed that “Palestinians needed to be ethnically purified.” It also states that “A Palestinian state would mean Palestinian liberation and the complete abolition of the State of Israel” so that “Arabs and Jews can live together.”
Tabassum has refused to condemn the website’s content but told The Times that he is not anti-Semitic. She said she has not been a prominent pro-Palestinian activist and accused the university of portraying her as a hijab-wearing Muslim woman.
“When you silence us, you make us more vocal,” he said in an interview Tuesday.
The differences over the cancellation were clearly visible on campus Wednesday afternoon when theater professor Brent Blair stood near the Tommy Trojan statue holding a poster that read, “Jewish faculty in support of Asna Tabassum. Let him speak!”
As students walked by, some took photos of Blair – who wore a yarmulke and a Star of David necklace – to express support.
But another student saw Blair, shook his hand, and told the professor he was Jewish.
Fatima Cicek, an 18-year-old USC freshman, is a neuroscience major. (Gennaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
“I don’t think he should speak,” said the student, who declined to share his name.
The student said Tabassum promoted anti-Semitism and it would have been dangerous to let him speak at the beginning.
“I have a lot of Jewish friends who are afraid she will say something,” the student said.
Blair said in response, “I have many Jewish friends who are afraid she won’t do it.”
Another student passed by and saw Blair’s sign over his shoulder. “You are a miserable Jew,” he said.
Reflecting on this exchange, which was witnessed by a reporter for The Times, Blair said the university had further inflamed campus divisions.
He said, “If USC wanted to stir up a mountain of outrage, they couldn’t have done anything more efficient than this.”
A group called the Revolutionary Communist Organization, made up of non-students, was also present on campus on Wednesday. The members were holding placards on which it was written that Tabassum should be listened to and the repression of pro-Palestine voices should be stopped. They distributed pro-Palestinian flyers, including student Jade Lee.
Lee, a third-year neuroscience student, said canceling the speech was a “mess.” She said she had not discussed the issue in her classes or in conversations among friends and felt the need to “do more.”
Mustafa al-Mahdi, a graduate student passing by, also said he disagreed with the decision.
“She is being silenced, not on the basis of what she was going to say, but on the basis that they were afraid of what she would say,” he said.
USC doctoral candidate Shontay Mitchum, 29, majoring in sociology. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Tabassum, who said she had not written her speech or shared details about it with the university, said she planned to focus her talk on “hope.”
Asna Tabassum was selected as valedictorian and was offered a traditional slot to speak at USC’s graduation ceremony the following month, until controversy arose and the university canceled her speech.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Pro-Israel organizations outside USC were among those that issued the loudest calls to expel Tabassum. But some pro-Israel Jewish groups on campus have also been critical of the university.
“The university has failed to condemn the anti-Semitic rhetoric promoted by Honorable,” the Israeli student group Trojans said in a statement.
Wagner, the rabbi who leads Chabad, a campus organization that reaches its several thousand Jewish students, said he agreed with the sentiment.
USC junior Ethan Stubbington, 21, is studying law. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
“USC was in an impossible situation with no good path forward,” Wagner said. He said he respected the student’s academic achievements but disagreed with the views he shared online about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Still, he said, USC “mishandled” the controversy.
“It’s unfair to everyone.”
