The university’s decision to cancel its valedictorian’s commencement speech continues a troubling pattern of suppressing free speech on Palestine-related topics.

he University of Southern California’s (USC) cancellation of its 2024 valedictorian, Asna Tabassum’s, commencement speech on Monday garnered attention from national and international media. Andrew T. Guzman, the provost, announced the university’s decision to cancel the speech on April 15, citing security reasons.

Guzman stated:

“Unfortunately, over the past several days, discussion relating to the selection of our valedictorian has taken on an alarming tenor. The intensity of feelings, fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, has grown to include many voices outside of USC and has escalated to the point of creating substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement. We cannot ignore the fact that similar risks have led to harassment and even violence at other campuses.”

USC did not provide any evidence, examples or explanation as to how the “intensity of feelings” has escalated to such an extent to warrant legitimate security concerns. Tabassum, a first-generation South Asian-American Muslim student, claims that she made a request to USC for “the details underlying the university’s threat assessment,” and that the university denied her request. According to The New York Times, “[USC] did not respond immediately [to the Times] on Tuesday to a question about whether it had received a credible threat.”

The provost assured the USC community that “this decision has nothing to do with freedom of speech. There is no free-speech entitlement to speak at a commencement. The issue here is how best to maintain campus security and safety, period.”

Tabassum appears to doubt this reasoning. Her full response to the university’s decision is written below:

“I am honored to have been selected as USC Class of 2024 Valedictorian. 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.

This campaign to prevent me from addressing my peers at commencement has evidently accomplished its goal: today, USC administrators informed me that the university will no longer allow me to speak at commencement due to supposed security concerns. I am both shocked by this decision and profoundly disappointed that the University is succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice.

I am not surprised by those who attempt to propagate hatred. I am surprised that my own university—my home for four years—has abandoned me.

In a meeting with the USC Provost and the Associate Senior Vice President of Safety and Risk Assurance on April 14, I asked about the alleged safety concerns and was told that the University had the resources to take appropriate safety measures for my valedictory speech, but that they would not be doing so since increased security protections is not what the University wants to “present as an image.”

Because I am not aware of any specific threats against me or the university, because my request for the details underlying the university’s threat assessment has been denied, and because I am not being provided any increased safety to be able to speak at commencement, there remain serious doubts about whether USC’s decision to revoke my invitation to speak is made solely on the basis of safety.

Instead of allowing the campaign of hatred to define who I am and what I stand for, let me therefore take this opportunity to tell you about myself.

I am a first-generation South Asian-American Muslim whose passion for service stems from the experience of my grandparents, who were unable to access lifesaving medical technology because they had been displaced by communal violence.

I am a biomedical engineer who learned the meaning of health equity through developing low- cost and accessible jaundice for babies whose darker skin color conceals the visual yellowing of their complexion.

I am a proud Trojan who loves my campus that has enabled me to go from building a walker to shipping medical gowns to Ukraine to writing about the Rwandan Genocide to taking blood pressure measurements for our neighbors in Skid Row.

I am a student of history who chose to minor in resistance to genocide, anchored by the Shoah Foundation, and have learned that ordinary people are capable of unspeakable acts of when they are taught hate fueled by fear. And due to widespread fear, I was hoping to use my commencement speech to inspire my classmates with a message of hope. By canceling my speech, USC is only caving to fear and rewarding hatred.

My identities and experiences inspired me to think outside the box—a mindset I cultivated at USC, and it is this very quality that contributed to my selection as USC Valedictorian.”

Despite the provost’s insistence that the censorship of Tabassum’s commencement address is only related to security and not freedom of speech, the situation echoes similar instances on other college campuses such as the controversy involving NYU’s former Student Bar Association president Ryna Workman for writing an op-ed arguing Israeli apartheid led to the Hamas attacks that transpired on Oct. 7, 2023.

Workman’s punishment came after a letter sent to NYU leadership from former President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, demanded that NYU dissolve clubs and groups that “utilize hate speech to promote violence and endorse terrorism.” After the letter was received by NYU leadership, Workman was “promptly canceled for her speech, losing not only her position as president of the Student Bar Association, but a job offer that had previously been extended to her,” according to The Grayzone.

Like Workman, the cancellation of Tabassum’s speech came after the objection of external Jewish voices, according to The New York Times, and alluded to by Guzman himself when he stated “The intensity of feelings…has grown to include many voices outside of USC.” Guzman’s decision to cancel Tabassum’s speech also came just days after the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an international Jewish NGO dedicated to “[fighting] antisemitism…across the country”, gave USC a C-grade on its Campus Anti-Semitism Report Card which grades universities on how well they are combating antisemitism on campus.

USC’s Trojans for Israel club also called on the university to “reconsider” their selection of Tabassum as valedictorian before the speech she was set to deliver was canceled. The club argued that Tabassum “openly traffics anti-semitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric,” and called on the university to “act on their word” to create safer spaces for Jewish students. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization, condemned the cancellation of Tabassum’s speech, stating:

“USC cannot hide its cowardly decision behind a disingenuous concern for ‘security.’ Asna is an incredibly accomplished student whose academic and extracurricular accomplishments made her the ideal and historic recipient of this year’s valedictorian’s honor.”

“Even though USC has maintained Asna’s position as valedictorian, the cowardly decision to cancel her speech empowers voices of hate and censorship…”“We call on USC to immediately reverse course, restore her speech and treat all students fairly and justly, starting with Asna. We look forward to USC’S swift response.”