After a chaotic three-hour session Wednesday afternoon, the Academic Senate voted 21-7 to approve a resolution censuring university President Carol Folt and Provost Andrew Guzman, citing “widespread dissatisfaction and concern” among the faculty.
The resolution also expressed the Academic Senate’s endorsement to immediately create a task force with the goal of investigating “campus events over the last several months related to the conflict in the Middle East,” and providing a public report of its findings by September 15.
“Provost Guzman and I welcome ongoing engagement with the newly created task force,” Folt said in a statement to Annenberg Media. “For now, our focus is on celebrating the 19,000 graduates of USC’s Class of 2024.”
Among issues brought up by the resolution were the university’s banning of a professor from campus, the cancellation of valedictorian Asna Tabassum’s commencement address, the university’s cancellation of the main stage commencement ceremony and outside commencement speakers, campus protests and the removal of protestors from campus.
In the final vote, 21 members of the Academic Senate voted to censure, seven voted to oppose the measure and six members abstained.
The censure expressed the Academic Senate’s formal disapproval of Folt’s and Guzman’s actions. Earlier in the meeting, the Senate tabled a motion calling for a vote of no confidence for both Folt and Guzman.
Members of the Academic Senate asked multiple times if Folt and Guzman could expand on any of the specific safety threats that they said precipitated all of their decisions over the last month — starting with the cancellation of Tabassum’s speech. Folt explicitly declined to talk about specific safety concerns of the university or students.
“Faculty always want to know data and evidence, and I understand the expectation is, and what I’ve experienced everywhere, the one thing that people do not share are threats,” Folt said. “...And so I think what is difficult about that, is that it makes it OK. It’s a terrible situation, it is a no-win situation, if you’re in that.”
Guzman also declined to go into specifics when it came to reports of students feeling unsafe on campus.
“Over the last few months, we have seen a dramatic spike in reports coming to us from students in the classroom who have felt excluded, silenced, unwelcome and the like,” Guzman said. “...I’m not interested in discussing individual cases, but the spike in cases is unmistakable.”
During the meeting, Guzman said that the interim disciplinary process had been completed, and those who were suspended would be able to walk during graduation. He would not say whether or not the students would face additional sanctions.
“The regular disciplinary process is going on in the normal way,” Guzman said. “I don’t want to represent that we are simply suspending all discipline.”