USC valedictorian slams school for canceling speech

Earlier this month, the University of Southern California announced that Asna Tabassum would be the valedictorian of the class of 2024, with a GPA of 3.98 and in recognition of her community service and leadership qualities. She will graduate with a major in biomedical engineering and a minor in resistance to genocide.

But on Monday, USC canceled the speech.

In an announcement Monday, Provost Andrew Guzman said the “intensity of sentiments fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East” has created “substantial risks related to security and disruption at onset.”

“After careful consideration, we have decided that our student valedictorian will not give a speech at commencement. While this is disappointing, tradition must give way to safety,” he wrote. “This decision has nothing to do with freedom of expression. There is no right to free speech at the outset. The issue here is how best to maintain security and safety on campus, period.”

The school did not elaborate further and did not respond to a request for comment.

Tabassum questioned the university’s reasoning in an interview with JS, telling JS that she felt disappointed and let down by USC.

“I am surprised that my own university – where I called home for four years – abandoned me,” she said.

In a published statement on Monday, Tabassum said she was not aware of any specific threats against her or the university, and that administrators told her at a meeting last Sunday that “the university had the resources to take appropriate security measures for my valedictory speech, but they would not doing.” doing this because increased security protection is not what the university ‘wants to present as an image’.”

“Safety and safety are also my concern. That is consistent with my commitment to human equality and human rights. I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive at all,” Tabassum told JS. She noted that notable figures, including the former president Barack Obama, rap star Travis Scott And right-wing speaker Milo Yiannopoulos were all able to visit the campus grounds.

“The university has taken many security measures and created space for many more speakers, who are more controversial and important than me,” Tabassum said. ‘I’m the valedictorian. I am someone chosen by the university to represent its students. When it comes to actually believing that the university is making this decision about safety, I have to look at this through the lens of the university making the decisions to protect others who have come to campus, but not me.

A whole series of universities have done that had a hard time dealing with it student protests against the bombing by Israeli forces in Gaza more than 33,000 deaths. In recent months, schools have seen increasing cases of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia deactivation of student activist groupssuspension of staff, cases of doxxing and harassment and even reports of physically violentce.

This week the president of Columbia University is in attendance ready to testify at a conference Hearing about campus safety four months after a similar hearing resulted in the resignation of two Ivy League presidents. And tThe Ministry of Education was launched a series of studies last November to several universities where students reported anti-Semitic or Islamophobic incidents.

Tabassum said she was denied the opportunity to have others give a high-profile speech to someone like her — a South Asian hijab-wearing Muslim, someone “who is representative of communities and of the masses of people who have never seen the institution for them is made’. she told JS. “I wanted to offer hope that… we can succeed [at] institutions like USC.”

But after her invitation was withdrawn, Tabassum said those hopes faded.

“How can we safeguard the expression of human rights and protect that expression in the interests of all communities, not just those I most represent?” she asked.

According to Annenberg Media of USCSome students and alumni said Tabassum’s social media activities — which included a link to a pro-Palestinian page — were anti-Semitic. However, Guzman wrote that this decision was made “based on several criteria – not including social media presence.”

Since the university’s decision, Tabassum says she has been overwhelmed by messages of both support and hate. People from her primary school, whom she hasn’t spoken to in ten years, reached out. Others have speculated on Instagram about her ethnic background and her political views, and applauded the university’s decision to withdraw her invitation.

Rep. Omar (D-Minn.), one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, called the move “shameful” in An X message on Tuesday.

Tabassum “earned its place after years of hard work and academic excellence. Bigotry against minority students cannot be normalized,” she wrote.

The university said this will not be the case selecting a replacement for Tabassum during the main graduation ceremony, which was scheduled for May 10. About 65,000 people are expected to attend the ceremony for the school’s approximately 19,000 graduates, according to Annenberg Media.

“I hoped to use my speech to inspire my classmates with a message of hope,” Tabassum wrote in her statement. “By canceling my speech, USC is only pandering to fear and rewarding hate.”