ACML holds press conference

At the USC Religious Center, five former members of the Advisory Committee on Muslim Life took to the podium to explain why they think USC is not interested in their help to make the university life better for students and faculty here who are Muslim.

Dr. Evelyn Alsultany teaches American Studies and Ethnicity. She’s one of the faculty who resigned from the Advisory Committee on Muslim Life at USC, or ACML.

Dr. Evelyn Alsultany: If we have no bearing on decisions that impact Muslims at USC, then what is the point of the committee, those of us who resign and refuse to be window dressing for diversity at USC.

USC President Carol Folt established the ACML was created about a year and a half ago supposedly to help provide solutions for campus Islamophobia and to generally support Muslim students and faculty. The council had 19 members including three students. Of those, 11 members resigned last week to protest the university’s decision to cancel the valedictorian speech slated for graduation by Asna Tabassum, who happens to be Muslim.

Dr. Sherman Jackson holds a USC chair in Islamic thought and culture.

Dr. Sherman Jackson: The substance of this decision totally undermined the purpose of the committee, which was to promote the general welfare and dignified existence for Muslims across this campus free of discrimination.

Jackson, who is one of those ACML members who resigned says the committee was not even notified of the University’s decision before the general public.

Jackson: Meanwhile, the manner in which this decision was taken suggested that the committee itself had no real standing with the university.

To follow up, the committee requested an emergency meeting with President Folt. She could not attend. In her place was Provost Andrew Guzman. Jackson says Guzman just reiterated the points made in the all-University email that announced Tabassum would not speak and said it was because there were security threats.

Dr. Jackson says that any threats USC might have received -

Jackson: - as a university must be met with a resolve that is at least equal to that of those who have threatened that mission. Otherwise, the bullying mob prevails, the free and robust exchange of ideas dies, and with it, the very reason for our existence as a university, as well as our effectiveness as an educational institution, we fail our students, we fail their parents, we feel our faculty, and we felt everyone who has invested in this university.

Last week, those eleven disheartened members of the Advisory Committee on Muslim Life at USC emailed President Folt that they would resign if Tabassum was not reinstated at valedictorian speaker. They say they received no response. Ex-committee member Professor Alsultany says she and her fellow former committee members will not give up.

Evelyn Alsultany: We remain committed to supporting a vibrant Muslim community on campus. We are committed to standing by them and other students, when they speak out against the genocide that has killed over 34,000 people 72% of whom are women and children. We remain committed to stand by them when they are silenced, slandered and being for advocating for Palestinian human rights.

PHD student Alvin Makori studies with some of the faculty who were on the ACML.

Alvin Makori: I stand with them, I stand by them. And I stand for acknowledging and correcting the injustices that USC has put on specifically us, Anna, and the Muslim community on campus as a whole ... So I think the community will be stronger than ever in the face of these injustices.

And one day, maybe, the Advisory Committee on Muslim Life at USC could come back together. But only if USC makes tangible changes, says Dr. Jackson.

Jackson: There’s a really steep incline of trust, rebuilding, to get me for example, to be convinced that it would be worth my while to rejoin the committee. So I’d have to think about exactly what the symbolic or the the actual measures that the university could take to prove that trust.

At today’s press conference, the committee said that today was the first time they had heard from President Carol Folt. They said she emailed that she admires and respects them and she hopes they will reconsider their decisions.