The University of Southern California will not hold a main commencement ceremony this year, school officials said Thursday. The announcement comes after the university received backlash from pro-Palestinian activists over an earlier decision not to allow valedictorian Asna Tabassum to deliver a speech at the ceremony due to unspecified security threats.
“We understand that this is disappointing; however, we are adding many new activities and celebrations to make this commencement academically meaningful, memorable, and uniquely 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.
However, 23 satellite graduation ceremonies at USC’s schools and colleges will proceed as planned. The university said it will require tickets for “all commencement events taking place on May 8–11” and direct “all campus access through specific points of entry.”
Provost Andrew T. Guzman said in a campus-wide letter on April 15 that the university had learned of threats of an “alarming tenor” after Tabassum was announced as the valedictorian and named a scheduled speaker. The threats “escalated to the point of creating substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement.”
Tabassum’s Instagram profile featured a link to a pro-Palestinian website that said, “Zionism is a racist settler-colonialist ideology,” and, “One Palestinian state would mean Palestinian liberation and the complete abolishment of the state of Israel” so that “both Arabs and Jews can live together.”
But Tabassum has defended her views, saying she does not support antisemitism and instead claimed the school is targeting her as a hijab-wearing Muslim woman.
Last week, USC canceled appearances by several commencement honorees, explaining the decision was made in response to “the highly publicized circumstances surrounding our main stage commencement program.”
That decision was made to avoid putting honorees in an “awkward position,” USC senior vice president of communications Joel Curran told the Los Angeles Times.
“We are putting them in an awkward situation, difficult situation. There have been a lot of conversations around commencement. We do not want to put them in that position,” Curran said.
USC, like other universities around the country, has faced on-campus protests by pro-Palestinian students over the Israel–Hamas War. Student protesters formed an encampment at USC to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from weapons manufacturers with ties to Israel. 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.”
Columbia University Apartheid Divest organized the encampment and asked students to gather around the lawn to block police from entering. The group led chants calling for an “intifada revolution” and for Hamas to “kill another soldier now.”
As police carried out arrests last week, a crowd of some 500 students looked on and shouted at officers. Officials said the students likened police to the Ku Klux Klan and told officers to go kill themselves.
Students left the encampment on Wednesday afternoon to shout down House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) and four other House Republicans who held a press conference demanding Columbia president Minouche Shafik’s resignation.
“I am here today joining my colleagues in calling on president Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos,” Johnson said to a chorus of boos. “As speaker of the House, I’m committing today that the Congress will not be silent as Jewish students are expected to run for their lives and stay home from their classes, hiding in fear.”
Shafik first gave protesters a midnight deadline on Tuesday to clear out, though she extended the deadline twice to early Friday morning after negotiations with the students stalled.
At Princeton University, students established a protest encampment on Thursday morning only to begin disassembling their tents minutes later after receiving orders from a school official to take the tents down “right now.” Students then transitioned to a sit-in protest with singing.
At least two students were arrested.
Earlier this week, the unrest moved to Yale University as university police arrested 40 to 45 anti-Israel protesters on Monday morning, breaking up an encampment that had formed three days earlier.
Amid the arrests, some 150 protesters locked arms and chanted, “YPD [Yale Police Department] or KKK, I don’t know, they’re all the same,” and “Officer, officer, can’t you see? You’re on the wrong side of history.”