AAs the University of Southern California’s Class of 2024 prepares to graduate next month, when an estimated 65,000 people are expected to gather on the Los Angeles campus for the May 10 commencement ceremony, the school has sparked controversy over its cancellation , on Monday, of the planned graduation speaker course. speech amid concerns about his pro-Palestinian activism. It’s just the latest flashpoint in tensions that have been simmering for months and have spurred debate over limits on free speech at U.S. universities since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Andrew T. Guzman, university president and senior vice president for academic affairs, announced in a email told the USC community on Monday that graduating senior Asna Tabassum, who was selected as this year’s valedictorian, would not give a traditional valedictorian speech due to safety concerns. Tabassum, a Muslim American biomedical engineering major and student activist from Chino Hills, California, was attacked by pro-Israel groups after the Dean’s Office selected her as valedictorian among nearly 100 straight-A candidates for the degree earlier this month.
“Unfortunately, in recent days, the discussion regarding the selection of our valedictorian has taken on an alarming turn,” Guzman said in the email, which was also publicly posted on the university’s website along with answers to frequently asked questions about the selection process and USC’s free speech policies. “The intensity of feelings, fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East,” Guzman said, “has increased to the point of creating substantial security-related risks and disruptions at the outset.”
Trojans for Israel, a pro-Israel group at USC, had urged School authorities last week reconsidered Tabassum as valedictorian, claiming that she “openly traffics in anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric” and that her participation would cause the ceremony to become a “hostile and intolerant environment” for Jewish students. Also last week, We Are Tov, a social media advocacy group founded last year to combat anti-Semitism, he said: “Being selected as valedictorian is an honor and we are sure [Tabassum] is academically qualified for the position, but it is unacceptable for her to promote anti-Semitic views.” Both groups cited Tabassum’s social networks profilewhich includes a link to a website they claim promotes anti-Semitic rhetoric, such as calling Zionism a “racist” ideology and advocating the “complete abolition” of Israel.
Tabassum responded to the news of the cancellation of his speech in a declaration, saying: “This campaign to prevent me from addressing my classmates at graduation has evidently achieved its objective.” She added that she was “shocked by this decision and deeply disappointed that the University is succumbing to a hate campaign designed to silence my voice.”
Tabassum also said he doubts the official reason – security concerns – given for canceling his speech “because I am not aware of any specific threats against me or the university” and “because my request for details underlying the university’s threat assessment was denied.”
Tabassum supporters expressed their frustrations and accused USC of using security as a pretext for censorship.
“USC cannot hide its cowardly decision behind a hypocritical concern for ‘security,’” said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Greater Los Angeles Area Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA), in an announcement. declaration. “The dishonest and defamatory attacks on Asna are nothing more than thinly veiled manifestations of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism, which have been used as a weapon against university students across the country who defend human rights – and in favor of Palestinian humanity.”
CAIR-LA started a petition asking USC to reverse its decision. “The university can, should and must ensure a safe environment for graduation rather than taking the unprecedented step of canceling the valedictorian speech,” Ayloush said.
The Muslim Public Affairs Council, a national advocacy group, similarly denounced what it described in a declaration such as USC’s “suppression of free speech and academic freedom” and “capitulation to external pressures from political groups.” The group also said that Tabassum’s “silencing” reflected a broader trend: “Across the country, students who defend Palestinian rights face undue censorship and are subject to harassment and institutional resistance under the guise of maintaining order or neutrality”.
Pro-Palestinian university groups have supported the efforts to reinstate Tabassum’s speaking role at the commencement ceremony, including the USC chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, which said it was “horrified” by the university’s move. The USC Palestinian Justice Faculty Group said in a declaration which “unequivocally rejects” the Dean’s decision, which he described as “another example of USC’s blatant pattern of supporting anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim racism.”
USC, like other universities across the country, has been rocked by divisions over conflicts in the Middle East since October 7 of last year. Several months ago, the school made the headlines when he was banned from campus – although later reinstated – John Strauss, a Jewish economics professor, after a video went viral of him confronting pro-Palestinian student protesters calling for a ceasefire.
In November, USC revealed a website that clarifies its policies on freedom of expression. In your common questions page, said that even statements that “may cause serious distress, alarm and concern” posted on students’ social media pages “would likely be treated as protected speech if they do not include a specific threat against an individual and do not rise to the level of harassment or discrimination that the university is legally authorized to prohibit.”
In his announcement of the cancellation of Tabassum’s valedictorian speech, Provost Guzman rejected that the decision had anything to do with freedom of expression. “While this is disappointing, tradition must give way to safety,” he said. “There is no right to freedom of expression to speak at graduation. The question here is how best to maintain the safety and security of the campus, period.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
