USC’s decision to bar valedictorian Asna Tabassum from delivering her commencement speech, announced Monday, became national news overnight — sparking petitions, letters and intense debate on campus and beyond.
Tabassum, a pro-Palestinian student, was scheduled to give a speech on commencement day, but after the announcement of her selection as valedictorian, some groups like Trojans for Israel claimed a link in her Instagram bio contained “antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric.”
USC’s Provost Andrew T. Guzman notified students and faculty of the University’s decision to cancel her speech in a campus-wide email Monday afternoon, citing safety concerns.
“This decision is not only necessary to maintain the safety of our campus and students, but is consistent with the fundamental legal obligation – including the expectations of federal regulators – that universities act to protect students and keep our campus community safe,” Guzman wrote in the email.
Tabassum will graduate next month with a major in biomedical engineering and a minor in resistance to genocide. Tabassum is heavily involved in the USC community, having been involved with Los Angeles Community Impact, USC Mobile Clinic and co-founding Blueprints for Pangaea — a USC organization that distributes medical supplies from USC’s medical school to places in need worldwide.
Tabassum released a statement Monday saying the university “abandoned” her. In an interview with CNN Tuesday, Tabassum said she’s expecting and hoping to be reinstated to speak at commencement.
“Although this should have been a time of celebration for my family, friends, professors, and classmates, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian voices have subjected me to a campaign of racist hatred because of my uncompromising belief in human rights for all,” Tabassum wrote in her original statement from Monday.
Many student groups at USC have spoken out against the decision to revoke Tabassum’s valedictorian speech through statements on social media, including a letter sent to Annenberg Media.
“When you are silencing her, you are silencing all of us,” reads the letter signed by over 30 campus and community-affiliated organizations. “When USC uses the rhetoric of safety to justify its decision while refusing to provide safety measures to a threatened student, we know it means the safety of USC receiving donations, not the safety of its students.”
Jewish Voice for Peace, a USC student group “organizing towards Palestinian liberation and Judaism beyond Zionism,” signed onto the joint letter in support of Tabassum, and they also released their own statement through Instagram.
“As members of JVP, we are disgusted that USC put her in this position, didn’t protect her, and then allowed her to be harassed by multiple organizations who aren’t even affiliated with a school that operate outside of the school,” said Bea Heard, a member of JVP USC.
Trojans for Israel — a “bipartisan advocacy group committed to strengthening the US-Israel relationship” according to their Instagram — posted a statement Thursday stating Tabassum “openly traffics antisemitism and anti-Zionist rhetoric” and asked the university to reconsider their selection for valedictorian.
USC Chabad also released a statement on Instagram in which they expressed concern over the statement from the Office of the Provost.
“[USC] released a statement that the valedictorian would not be speaking due to security concerns,” reads the Chabad statement. “[USC’s] statement says nothing about the sentiments expressed, nor about the fact that those sentiments continue to be featured on her social media.”
In an interview with Annenberg Media, Erroll G. Southers, the associate senior vice president for safety and risk assurance at USC, doubled down on the university’s stance.
“We’ve never had anybody or any group of people express grievances with anyone who is going to be at commencement. And we’ve certainly not had the volume that we’ve had here,” Southers said. “It was not just about our valedictorian’s safety and her family’s safety, but it’s the 70,000 people that come to campus for commencement.”
Students at USC shared feelings of disappointment and disbelief in light of the university’s decision to cancel Tabassum’s speech.
“I feel embarrassed being a USC student,” said Rachita Jai, a sophomore studying economics and data science. “I don’t understand how you can strip something like that away from someone who’s worked so hard and done so much and contributed so much to USC. She deserves the opportunity to speak, and it’s unfair for the university to say that they stand by free speech while they’re taking away that opportunity from her.”
Annenberg Media spoke to a friend of Tabassum, also a senior majoring in biomedical engineering, who requested her name not be used for her family’s safety. She said Tabassum first put the link on her Instagram bio, which is filled with references to additional books, documentaries and websites to learn more about Palestine, about five years ago.
“She is not a person that is antisemitic in any way,” the friend said. “A lot of people are conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and they’re not the same thing. I feel like there’s been a lot of nuance that has been lost, and a lot of nuance can be lost over social media because you can’t have these conversations if someone isn’t willing to sit down and listen.”
Tabassum was named valedictorian for the Class of 2024 by Guzman in early April among the 200 eligible seniors. The Valedictorian and Salutatorian Selection Committee evaluated nearly 100 applications. After recommendations from the committee, the Provost ultimately decided on Tabassum. Guzman wrote in the email that the valedictorian vetting process did not include social media presence.
Ivana Giang, USC’s 2019 valedictorian, told Annenberg Media that the decision to remove her as commencement speaker is a mistake that embarrasses the university and alumni.
“The administration is in the wrong to try and take away the voice of its most accomplished undergraduate, the faculty who selected her, and all of the classmates and community members who have poured out their support for her since the decision was announced,” Giang wrote in a statement to Annenberg Media.
Jody Armour, a USC law professor, said private discrimination and private sanctions on free speech perpetuates social inequities as much as government restrictions on free speech.
He also referenced the Controversial Speakers webpage on USC’s official website, which states “the First Amendment does not protect what is referred to as the ‘heckler’s veto,’” or shutting down speech because other people don’t like the message.
“This is what an actual heckler’s veto looks like,” Armour said. “That is pre-emptively shutting down speech because of unnamed security concerns. It makes it very easy for hate campaigns to silence people on our campus.”
Guzman wrote in the email announcement that this situation has nothing to do with freedom of speech and that “there is no free-speech entitlement to speak at a commencement.”
The Controversial Speakers page reads, “It would undermine academic freedom and set a troubling precedent if the university were to begin prohibiting certain individuals (but not others) from speaking simply because their ideologies or points of view were deemed controversial.”
“This unprecedented decision, at the end of the day, didn’t really strike me as something that keeps us safe,” Armour said. “It only emboldens bigotry. It’s not something that I think makes us necessarily safer, and it’s certainly not something that makes a clear statement of who we are, what values we’re willing to stand for, how we’re willing to be as brave as that Tommy Trojan statue standing out there.”
Tabassum’s friend said the University cited security concerns for canceling her speech, yet they are “not providing her the security she needs.”
“I would love to hear Asna speak,” Tabassum’s friend said. “She’s an incredible speaker and incredible person, and I think she can offer a lot of wisdom to the USC community … It’s been a real privilege getting to be friends with her these past four years and just get to hang out and have a ton of fun. And I think people don’t tend to see the humanity in a person when things like this are going on.”