Amid controversy over its decision to cancel the commencement speech of its pro-Palestinian valedictorian, USC has called off all speakers at the ceremony. Macy Jenkins reports for the NBC4 News on April 19, 2024.
The University of Southern California (USC) will not have commencement speakers at its upcoming ceremony after the institution canceled a speech from its pro-Palestinian valedictorian, the school announced Friday.
USC has been met with protests and criticism after it announced it would cancel the 2024 commencement speech from Asna Tabassum, a fourth-year student from Chino Hills with a major in biomedical engineering and a minor in resistance to genocide. The school cited safety precautions as reason to cancel Tabassum’s speech.
In a statement, the university said:
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"To keep the focus on our graduates, we are redesigning the commencement program. Given the highly publicized circumstances surrounding our main-stage commencement program, university leadership has decided it is best to release our outside speakers and honorees from attending this year’s ceremony.”
Tabassum, who is a first-generation South Asian American Muslim, told NBC4 that she was disappointed by the school’s decision to not have her speak at the graduation. She called this a "campaign of hate," meant to silence her voice.
“As your class valedictorian, I implore my USC classmates to think outside the box — to work towards a world where cries for equality and human dignity are not manipulated to be expressions of hatred,” Tabassum said in a statement.
She added that she was not aware of any specific threats made against her or the campus.
The nonprofit Council on American-Islamic Relations' Los Angeles office called the move by USC to not have Tabassum deliver the commencement speech a “cowardly decision.”
In a written statement, CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said "The dishonest and defamatory attacks on Asna are nothing more than thinly-veiled manifestations of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism, which have been weaponized against college students across the country who speak up for human rights — and for Palestinian humanity."
