Pro-Palestine demonstrators argue with USC public safety officers after officers attempted to take down an encampment in support of Gaza at the University of Southern California on April 24, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) USC announced on April 25 that they are canceling their main commencement ceremony due to “new safety measures.” The announcement was made as pro-Palestinian protests were raging on campus.
“With the new safety measures in place this year, the time needed to process the large number of guests coming to campus will increase substantially,” the announcement stated. “As a result, we will not be able to host the main stage ceremony that traditionally brings 65,000 students, families, and friends to our campus all at the same time and during a short window from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. 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.”
A TikTok video of a USC senior with the handle “@gracieflynn12” featured the student saying that she and the other USC seniors this year were also the seniors who didn’t have a high school graduation in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Now all my roommates are depressed, and we were literally all just sitting in the living room in tears, but not much we can do about it so we’re going to make the most of it,” she said, calling the decision to cancel the main commencement ceremony “ridiculous.”
Here, a USC senior who was robbed of a high school graduation by the COVID Panic reacts to USC cancelling her college commencement because of an anti-Israel valedictorian and fear of protests…
This is the world that liberals want and are creating for her and her generation.😡🥲 pic.twitter.com/QhbTAfBBcp
— John Ziegler (@Zigmanfreud) April 26, 2024
The news came while pro-Palestinian protests continued on campus.According to the Los Angeles Police Department, since the protests started April 24, there have been 93 arrests, between 50-60 of them are believed to be students, Annenberg Media reported.
USC Hillel said in a statement on April 25, “Today’s events on campus included a protest action that again employed antisemitic chants including ‘there is only one solution, intifada revolution’ and ‘long live the intifada.’ These actions reflect a disturbing and quickly escalating situation on campus nationally and on our own campus at USC. No student should feel unwelcome in their own campus home, and our Jewish students are telling us that these actions and hostile rhetoric induce feelings of fear, terror and instability.”
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USC Chemistry Professor Anna Krylov told the Journal in an email, “USC has a responsibility to restore order on campus and protect its students and faculty. There are limits on the time, place, and manner of free expression. Violent and disruptive protests are not protected by the First Amendment, as has been recently reminded to us by free speech advocates.” She pointed to an April 22 statement by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and an April 23 Chronicle of Higher Education op-ed by Princeton University Professor Keith Whittington as examples of “free speech advocates” arguing that point.
“It is sad to see that the commencement is spoiled for everyone by these outbursts of hatred, but this is an inevitable result of the radical extremist ideas, most notably antisemitism and anti-Zionism, that have been brewing inside our universities,” Krylov added.
On April 15, USC announced that they were canceling the valedictorian’s address to the graduating student body after the valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, came under fire for a link posted to her Instagram bio that was criticized as being antisemitic.
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