USC Removes Commencement Speakers, Honorees After Canceling Valedictorian’s Speech
University says it is redesigning its commencement program amid the ‘highly publicized circumstances’ surrounding it
April 19, 2024
The University of Southern California has removed outside speakers and honorees from its commencement ceremony next month, days after canceling its valedictorian’s speech over security concerns.
The university on Friday said keynote speaker Jon M. Chu, director of the film “Crazy Rich Asians,” won’t take part in the event. Guests receiving honorary degrees have also been removed from the 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,” USC said in a statement. The university added that it wanted to “keep the focus on our graduates.”
The move capped a tumultuous week for USC, which drew a backlash after announcing that valedictorian Asna Tabassum, a Muslim student, would no longer deliver a speech at the university’s commencement ceremony on May 10. Provost Andrew Guzman, in a letter published Monday, cited safety concerns for the decision, noting that discussion around the valedictorian had “taken on an alarming tenor.”
Pro-Israel groups and social-media accounts, both on campus and from outside USC, had urged the university to reconsider Tabassum following her selection as valedictorian. They said Tabassum promoted antisemitic and anti-Israel views. Her Instagram profile included a link to a site that references Palestinian liberation and the abolishment of the state of Israel.
Tabassum said she was shocked by the university’s decision. She said she wasn’t aware of specific threats against herself or the university.
“By canceling my speech, USC is only caving to fear and rewarding hatred,” Tabassum said in a statement she released through the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles.
The war in Gaza has split college campuses across the U.S. as universities have struggled to balance free-speech rights with shielding students from harassment and threats of violence.
On Thursday, New York police arrested over 100 pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University. A student encampment sprang up on campus Wednesday morning, the same day that Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, testified before Congress about the university’s response to instances of antisemitism on campus since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
The protests were organized by a coalition of student groups demanding Columbia divest from financial interests in corporations with ties to Israel. Shafik asked the NYPD to remove the students, saying the protest posed a “clear and present danger to the substantial functioning of the university.”
USC said Friday that its leadership decided to release outside speakers as part of a redesign of its commencement program.
“It is important that our full attention be on our remarkable graduates,” the school said in the statement.
The USC webpage announcing Chu—a 2003 graduate from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts—as a 2024 commencement speaker had been deleted, but a March 7 press release from the school naming him a speaker remained on the university’s website. Chu didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
USC said it hopes to award the planned honorary degrees to recipients at a later time.
Write to Ginger Adams Otis at Ginger.AdamsOtis@wsj.com