LOS ANGELES As demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war continue to spread across college campuses across the country, students and alumni were taken aback by the University of Southern California’s decision to cancel its main graduation ceremony on Thursday. The decision was made ten days after administrators had announced that the student valedictorian, who had expressed support for Palestinians, would not be allowed to speak.
The USC dispute began on April 15 when administrators said that the 2024 valedictorian, who has openly backed Palestinians, would not be allowed to give a graduation speech. Their unusual decision was justified by vague security concerns. A few days later, USC announced it would not be awarding honorary degrees and canceled the keynote address by filmmaker Jon M. Chu, a 2003 alumnus.
Students at Columbia institution called for the institution to withdraw from businesses who do business with Israel or support its current military assault in Gaza, and last week, similar protests were sparked on the campus of Columbia University in Los Angeles. On Wednesday night, ninety protestors were taken into custody. A day or so later, the university declared that this year’s big graduation ceremony, which usually draws 65,000 guests to the Los Angeles campus, would not take place.
Joshua Adams intended to celebrate his master’s degree in journalism’s tenth anniversary by bringing his family back to USC’s campus the following year. He described as “upsetting” the university’s recent measures to restrict free speech and expressed the hope that the opinions of alumni would influence administrators.
