Student groups were left displaced and scrambling over the weekend when USC administration revoked all event permits for on-campus functions, including end-of-semester celebrations and performances, amid campus unrest.
This came just as a citywide tactical alert was issued by LAPD Saturday from 6:30 to 11 p.m. in response to USC Divest From Death Coalition’s ongoing encampment, as reported by City News Service.
Monday, at least one school department’s event to recognize students for their achievements was scrapped.
Student groups who had an event scheduled on campus for Sunday received an email late Saturday informing them of the cancellation. The email, which was signed by Adam Rosen, associate vice president of Cultural Relations and University Events, stated that “due to the current campus closures,” the event “must be canceled.”
The USC Sirens A Cappella group was informed around midnight that the events permit for its spring show — which was scheduled for Sunday evening — was canceled. Prior to the cancellation, the group had been working closely with the school to adhere to the guest registration policy put into place Wednesday.
“We had been in close contact with both DPS and the provost office to make sure that we could still host the event on campus,” said Kaitlyn Huamani, senior journalism major and member of Sirens. “And, as of Friday and Saturday morning, they had been very clear that there wouldn’t be any problems because we had registered each non-student guest officially through the university.”
Sirens scrambled to find a new performance space, and the group was ultimately able to perform in the USC Village. However, not all groups have been as fortunate and reports were coming in all weekend of students left stranded.
Another student in Sirens, who goes by the name Nations, said she believes that the acapella group’s permit being pulled was a result of police escalation on Friday.
“We had obtained a permit to hold our Sirens concert at the BCI from DPS, but this was revoked after things had ‘escalated’ Friday night,” said Nations, a sophomore theater major and Sirens board member. “It was very obviously a response to police presence and not what was going on in the protest. There had not been escalation at the protest, as far as I know, and as soon as the convoy arrived was when the cancellation occurred.”
Hearing the news was particularly upsetting for Huamani, whose parents had flown in from New Jersey for her final performance.
“I started freaking out, because I was worried that they flew all this way for nothing, and I got really emotional,” she said. “I mean, this year has already been hard enough on seniors with the changes to commencement and the lack of transparency [from] the university, it’s been very frustrating and hard to handle. So this was just like, a whole new level of frustration and sadness.”
Break Through Hip Hop — a student-run dance organization — had their show in Bovard Auditorium shut down Saturday night around 8 p.m. after audience members had already been seated. The show had already been rescheduled once before from Wednesday night while pro-Palestine protesters were being arrested in Alumni Park.
“I felt sad for the dancers and their families that traveled a long way to see them dance and sad for the seniors who experienced another tarnished graduating memory,” said Daeshylyn Satcher, a junior architecture major who was attending the show to support a friend.
Satcher believes that the show would not have been disrupted by the encampment.
“We were across the way from Alumni Park, so the two events seemed pretty separate,” Satcher siad. “Even walking through campus I felt safe, until LAPD showed up in great force.”
The cancellation of events has continued Monday.
The political science and international relations department (POIR) wrote an email to students that its POIR Student Recognition Dinner will not move forward on May 8 as planned.
“It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that the Department of Political Science and International Relations (POIR) Student Recognition Dinner has been canceled,” the email read.
The email asked students to instead come and collect their certificates between 9 a.m and 5 p.m. between May 6 and May 10.
Mia, a POIR student who was to be honored at the student recognition dinner, said that she is “overwhelmingly disappointed” and “disgusted” at the behavior of USC over the past days.
“USC seems to be making the wrong decision at every opportunity,” she said, hoping for the university to reverse its decision. “Student protesting is not only a right, it is a necessity, and USC punishing students who have worked hard their entire time at this university because the administration refuses to engage with demonstrators in good faith only makes the university look worse.”
The POIR email suggested more sad notes are to come. “University administration has requested all private department events being held on campus to be canceled during the week of commencement,” it read. USC PR has not confirmed if this department’s statement is accurate.