After receiving backlash from pro-Palestine activists over an earlier decision to forbid valedictorian Asna Tabassum from giving a speech at the ceremony, the University of Southern California ( USC ) has decided to cancel the class of 2024’s entire graduation ceremony.
” We understand that this is disheartening, yet, we are adding some fresh activities and celebrations to make this commencement professionally important, wonderful, and truly USC, including places to gather with family, friends, faculty, and staff, the celebratory releasing of the doves, and performances by the Trojan Marching Band”, the university said in a statement announcing the decision to cancel the university- wide May 10 graduation, which was expected to draw some 65, 000 people.
But, 23 satellite graduating ceremonies at USC’s schools and colleges will proceed as planned. The school stated that it will need tickets for” all starting events taking place on May 8- 11″ and clear” all college entry through specific points of entry.”
One Palestinian state would mean Palestinian liberation and the complete abolition of the state of Israel, according to Tabassum’s Instagram profile, which had a link to a pro-Palestine website that read,” Zionism is a racist settler-colonial ideology,” and that “both Arabs and Jews can live together.”
After Tabassum was announced as the valedictorian and named as a scheduled speaker, Provost Andrew T. Guzman claimed in a campus-wide letter from the university on April 15 that the university had been informed of threats of an “alarming tenor.” The threats , “escalated to the point of creating substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement”.
Tabassum has defended her beliefs, claiming that the school is targeting her because she wears a hijab and does n’t support antisemitism.
National Review  details how pro-Palestine students have protested on-campus at numerous other top universities across the nation because of the Israel– Hamas War. Students protesters set up an encampment at USC to demand divestment from Israeli-linked weapons manufacturers and a ceasefire in Gaza. The protest led to dozens of arrests.
NYPD officers arrested 108 anti- Israel protesters on Columbia University’s campus last week after the university’s president asked law enforcement to step in and break up the” Gaza Solidarity Encampment”.
The encampment was set up by Columbia University Apartheid Divest, and students were instructed to gather around the lawn to stop police from entering. The group sung chants in which Hamas demanded an “intifada revolution” and that Hamas “kill another soldier now.”
A crowd of about 500 students watched and yelled at police as police conducted arrests last week. According to officials, the students compared police to the Ku Klux Klan and instructed officers to commit suicide.
