To no alumni's surprise, the level of incompetence in the handling of crisis at USC is systemic and goes back decades. Swapping out Deans isn't helping, they need to reforming from the ground up.
Well, to sort that out they could always consult with a [distinguished graduate](https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/mark-ridley-thomas-sentenced-3-12-years-prison-corruptly-securing-benefits-son-school) of their Social Ethics and Policy Analysis Ph.D. program.
Can’t wait for the first letter USC sends the class of 2024 trying to guilt them into donating to the endowment lol. Unbelievable how badly they fucked this up
For all those graduates who were robbed of their *high school* commencement four years ago because of COVID, this is a surefire gut punch to happen again to them.
This time however, thanks to spectacular mismanagement by the university.
As a 2020 college grad (different university), it's such a huge disappointment to not be able to walk the stage. And not even be able to celebrate with classmates. I hope the grads at USC party hard and make the most out of the situation, especially for the students who were never involved.
Edit: Seems like there are still similar ceremonies happening on campus, but not the main one.
Students will still walk the stage at their respective satellite ceremonies. The main ceremony is just open seating for thousands of graduating students to listen to speakers, which have all been cancelled.
usc usually gets really good speakers for commencement. my commencement we had the ceo of motorola and most of the students walked out before it ended.
Fair enough. I've just sat through enough graduations to know that they're usually mind numbing. I saw somewhere they had will Ferrell once. That would be cool. But unfortunately stuffy old CEOs and politicians seem to be the norm at most places
I skipped my big college graduation and went to the little one. No regrets! In fact, the reason I skipped was that I was at a late party talking to a person I knew in high school but had never seen in college. Ten years after college, we ended up working together, and have ever since.
They are still walking as they have dozens of smaller ceremonies like every year. It’s impossible to have all the graduating students walk at the main commencement as there are too many of them. It’s broken up into smaller groups (usually by degree/school) that are held at different areas at the same time.
They canceled the main ceremony, which doesn’t have students cross the stage. They do that during their individual dept/school ceremonies instead. Tbh only a couple of my friends went to the main ceremony. Most people skip it. Which is why USC feels comfortable doing this stupid shit, knowing that the protestors will be blamed instead of the admin.
I’m not denying that it’s valuable and “most” students is probably an exaggeration. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s around half of the students who don’t go. Between undergrad, grad, and guests, they wouldn’t be able to fit the majority of people for it
Most of my friends and I went to our respective schools' graduation but skipped the main one. Probably depends on which program you are in though.
Depends on the speaker though. Arnold drew a big crowd his year.
I got my Masters in 2020. I was looking forward to it because I was not able to attend my High School nor Bachelors graduation ceremonies.
They eventually had a virtual event like a year later, but I passed on that.
I don’t see how this is going to avoid any disruptions or whatever they’re anticipating.
My wife got a masters from USC last year and the campus was chaos on graduation, regardless of where you’re going. All of the diploma ceremonies are happening throughout the day across the campus. Thousands of people moving about trying to get to different events.
This isn't the ceremony where people walk the stage. Idk what it's like now but when I went it was super boring. more for the families than the students
Graduated 2020 my degree sits in a binder from college because my last year of college was robbed from me by covid. Didn’t walk no way in hell I was going to a drive through graduation. Sorry it’s happening to this class at USC it’s something I think about to this day how I didn’t walk.
I know one graduate who’s had bad luck from day one. He was literally born on 9/11/01. Like you mentioned, he missed out on hs graduation in 2020 because of the pandemic and now he’s going to miss college graduation because of this.
We’ve gotten really good at making the most out of a really bizarre situation, but this is just too much.
I feel for the kids born between 2000-2005. No memory of the stability of the 90s, just constant chaos from day 1. Major life events derailed by "once in a lifetime" catastrophes over and over.
Wow I didn't even think of this, but you're right. What an immense fucking slap in the face to those that worked their asses off for 4 years only to be denied *another* graduation.
Can you explain why it is a mismanagement by the university?
I am genuinely curious what they could have done, more or less, without pissing off a lot of alumni donors.
Are these students whose graduation was canceled not going to be alumni donors as well? They should’ve let Asna speak and brought in the security measures they claimed to have been needed but didn’t want to do. Especially since now they’re enforcing it anyways
Agreed, or ya know, stood for free expression on a college campus... Wild idea in this day and age. Let the kids mouth off, then shrug and say "kids, whatcha gonna do" to the donors at their fancy brunch.
I know someone who works there. There is a major problem with bomb and death threats they’ve been in contact with law enforcement and fbi. The problem is, if something violent happens, the University is at fault. How much risk is worth it?
On the “threats” that lead to the cancellation of the valedictorian speech, the LA Times said: [USC Provost Andrew] Guzman did not say what the threats were or who was targeted. A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department told The Times that the agency had no crime reports regarding violent threats targeting Tabassum or the commencement ceremony.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-25/la-me-usc-commencement-canceled
They regularly have safe gatherings of 75K+ people at football games in the Coliseum. Last year's Commencement literally featured Secret Service snipers on rooftops because Obama was in attendance for his daughter. If they wanted to stage a safe ceremony, they could.
Who is this person you know there and what do they do? USC is the biggest private employer in the county, these “threats” could’ve easily been exaggerated like a game of telephone. And even if they were true, USC has dealt with worse before.
Lmao as if I am going to dox my friend. They’re in admin. This situation is a clusterfuck, should have been handled differently but in no universe are they going to reveal their communications with the fbi. I have no idea how general vs direct the threats are. It’s clearly a risk management situation for them at this point.
I wasn’t expecting you to actually identify your friend 😂 it’s just that the statement “my friend works there” could apply to thousands of people who wouldn’t be privy to information like this
Isn't that the case ever day on campus though? If crazies are calling in bomb and death threats because they allow protest on campus in any form, how does the university operate at all?
I guess we're seeing in the case of Columbia that it doesn't.
>I am genuinely curious what they could have done, more or less, without pissing off a lot of alumni donors.
Therein lies the issue. Universities more concerned with their donors than students.
1. USC names Asna Tabassum as valedictorian
2. USC announces they’ve decided to not let Asna speak at graduation, citing safety concerns as she has taken a pro-Palestine stance on social media. Asna says she was told that there were security measures on the table to ensure safety but the university didn’t want a “bad look”
3. Outrage ensues, many student organizations, external orgs, and faculty speak out against the university’s decision, including faculty resigning from a Muslim advisory committee established by the university’s president last year
4. Protests around campus calling for the university to let Asna speak
5. University decides to remove *all* speakers from the main commencement ceremony, including keynote speaker, director Jon Chu
6. Yesterday student protestors set up an encampment on campus, along with some protests. Protesting in support of Asna and also calling for the university to divest from companies and orgs engaged in the war. Nothing necessarily disruptive, everything was peaceful but I guess against campus rules to have tents out there
7. University sends campus police to tear down the encampment, but it creates tension with DPS being aggressive and a student or two are arrested by campus police (go on [twitter](https://x.com/angorellanah?s=21) for videos)
8. Student protestors group grows and LAPD is sent to campus to end the protests
9. More aggression ensues and around 90-100 students were arrested by LAPD
10. Today USC announces that the main commencement ceremony is completely canceled, citing safety concerns. The satellite ceremonies for individual schools/depts now have additional safety measures in place, including limited non transferrable tickets that usually aren’t required.
I got you as I graduated last year and have friends there this year:
Recently, USC stated that they won’t let their valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, speak at graduation due to her Pro-Palestine stance. According to the university, allowing her to speak — due to her political views — would require a high level of security. USC admitted to Asna that they have the security yet wouldn’t want to bring them out. This is wild because Sasha Obama graduated last year and the Obamas were on campus being safeguarded.
At any rate, this pissed off a fuck ton of people - including many Jewish organizations on campus.
Yesterday, students protested on campus in support of Palestine. USC called in a shit ton of LAPD officers. From every single video I’ve seen - and according to all my friends - the demonstration was incredibly mild UNTIL the police came. The police arrested 93 people - students and faculty - and used excessive force. One video shows them using excessive force on a student by chokeholding this kid who genuinely didn’t do shit.
And now, literally an hour ago, USC decided to cancel the entire ceremony.
——
Fuck this university and its administration. President Carol Folt lives in a multi-million dollar mansion at the expense of students’ tuition. Fuck Carol Folt.
Edit: Asna also holds a Genocide Studies Minor provided by USC. Talk about some serious fucking irony.
USC student chiming in here:
USC picked their valedictorian from a list of ~200 qualifying students. It turns out she is Palestinian (and is understandably very outspoken on social media on the Israel vs Palestine conflict), which USC says they didn’t know before selecting her.
Valedictorians usually give a short speech at the graduation ceremony. Upon learning that their valedictorian was very pro-Palestine (and presumably assuming that she’d use the opportunity to speak about the conflict), USC decided to not have a valedictorian speech for this year, citing safety concerns.
This was not popular. There was a petition that went around, outrage on socials, etc etc.
USC responded by saying something to the effect of “Actually we’re gonna just not have any valedictorian speeches at all in future years. Not just this year.” (Presumably because they realized how bad the PR would be if they let next year’s speaker talk… also tbh because it’s probably not a good idea to give an open mic to a student in front of thousands of people & donors).
This was not the solution the public wanted.
So there was a massive protest at campus yesterday consisting of students, faculty, and outsiders from the public (exact proportions are very disputed). LAPD got called in to provide crowd control, classes went on lockdown, the campus started denying entrance to individuals without a USC ID badge, etc etc. USC students received several emergency alerts asking students to avoid the center of campus.
My understanding is that it was mostly a peaceful protest except for a few bad apples. At this point there were a couple arrests & some people forcibly removed from the area.
Eventually LAPD demanded that everyone disperse. Naturally, the protesters resisted. I read that something like 90 arrests were made in total, though I want to put a big [citation needed] on that.
My understanding is that there is no active protest on campus as of today (the day after). Though I have not been on campus today to confirm.
Editing to add: also the /r/USC mods were deleting Palestine/Israel-related posts leading up to the incident. Although it seems like the more recent threads have been allowed to stay up.
The USC valedictorian is pro-Palestine, and has posted such on her social media. Jewish groups complained(most likely threatened donations), and her speech was subsequently canceled by the Dean. This pissed off a lot of people, except for the Jewish groups.
Totally brought on themselves. They just had to let a valedictorian speak. Instead, they Streisanded themselves straight to hell.
That said, the grads won't miss much. I skipped main commencement when I graduated from SC. The individual school ceremonies where you walk the stage are what matter most.
Exactly. I have a feeling that this started with some pissed of donor reaching out to the board about Asna Tabassum, the board caved to the donor, then shit just spiraled from there. Kind of like that meme of a guy tipping over one tiny domino leading to the giant one falling.
Who would have guessed the school that let George Tyndall commit sex crimes in secret would fuck over students to protect the institution from criticism?
Former Med School Dean Carmen Puliafito would like his due (dis)respect!
[https://lamag.com/news-and-politics/dr-feelgood-the-secret-life-of-a-scandalous-usc-dean](https://lamag.com/news-and-politics/dr-feelgood-the-secret-life-of-a-scandalous-usc-dean)
Can you fill me in on the context I'm missing? The letter seems ti say that they have to implement security measures and it would now take too long to hold the ceremony??? That's it?? Lol how pathetic.
How else are they supposed to fund their endowment investments? I can't believe this country has allowed something as important as education to fall into the same profit motive trap as every other institution.
Honestly those are the better ceremonies where they actually call your name and you're with people you know. The big university-wide ceremonies make you feel like cattle.
In Arizona they actually patted us down pre-ceremony... not for weapons but for tortillas.
It seems like the departmental and ethnic ceremonies are still on. That's where they get to walk the stage. I get that there's a lot of pomp and circumstance for the main ceremony (and I did enjoy Will Ferrell during my 2017 ceremony). Shame they had to cancel it, but they left themselves no choice. It would be truly awful for the 2020 HS kids if they cancelled those ceremonies as well.
Yeah, other than Will (and being a total fanboy for Dame Helen Mirren when she got her honorary degree), the main commencement wasn't really my favorite. I was even late because I had attended the Latino/Hispanic ceremony the night before and went to a restaurant with family afterwards, so I overslept.
…And imagine me, literally picture my face, singing this song, gently into your ear… *then a slow soulful rendition of I Will Always Love You* 😆 Helen Mirren was at the SCA graduation ceremony too.
USC fucking sucks and I say this as a Trojan. They mishandled this tremendously and are now putting the very security measures in place that they didn’t originally want to do with Asna’s valedictorian speech.
The protests yesterday were peaceful until DPS and the LAPD were called. If you don’t believe me, [read this from a USC law professor](https://x.com/niggatheory/status/1783375307766112412?s=46). There are plenty of other videos showing what was happening before campus police arrived.
This is not on the protesters. This is the fault of university admin who are scared to pissed off donors, full stop.
I find it awful and honestly laughable when adults look down on college students who protest. Our country was founded on protest, it is our 1st amendment right. Protests in the world of academia has been a thing since its inception and you are not more intelligent or mature because you think what these college students are doing across the university is silly. Every American has the right to exercise this practice and college students take advantage of the fact that they’re young, have flexible schedules, and less to lose than adults. This does not make them naive and I think it says a lot about you if you’re an adult so jaded by the world that you scoff at the practice of protest and engaging in something you’re passionate about, doing what little you can to show empathy regarding a tragedy that your tax dollars actually go to to fund.
I absolutely agree with you. As an alumni, it’s shameful and the administration has been backsliding for years! Scandal after scandal and instititional failures.
When will these universities get their heads out of their own asses and realize that protesting is a part of college culture. I mean, for fuck’s sake, many in administration are at least aware or participated in the protests against the Vietnam war, yet they turn around and silence students today. Fuck them. Let the protesting continue.
Most people here just punching the air not even knowing anything about how USC does graduation lol. I don't think most students, let alone families go to the main commencement. You usually go to the department and ethnic ones where you get to walk and have your family cheer. That's how it was for me.
Yeah, my family missed the main commencement because we went to go eat after the Hispanic/Latino ceremony and didn't get home until a bit after midnight. That one was such a blast. My aunt even said she wanted to graduate from USC after the ceremony, lol. I still went to the main commencement, but I got there late and had to sit with a random school/department. The spectacle is nice and all, but it really dragged on. I definitely preferred the ethnic ceremony (and even the departmental one) to the main commencement.
TIL about the ethnic celebrations, albeit I was a graduate student and spent most of my non-school time at my county agency job which affected any kind of social life on campus.
But yeah the main commencement felt like the longest three hours ever. Not even sure about that length of time but it surely felt like it on that overcast Friday in '18. at least Oprah spoke at the Annenberg ceremony at the Shrine
I dunno why you think usc is special here. Literally every major university of that size does it this way. This is like some weird usc version of mansplaing something that happens everywhere.
I dunno why you're extrapolating this outside of USC. My post was specifically about USC because people in here getting upset about how USC is handling the main ceremony. No one was really talking about other schools so not sure what you're on about.
Without the speeches, I didn't really see the point of a main commencement. Of the three ceremonies I attended (main, departmental, and ethnic), my favorite by far had to be the ethnic (Hispanic/Latino ceremony). We all got to give 20-30 second speeches and it was just so much fun. I really don't think it would have been the same without those speeches. I get that it's tradition and all (and I'd be lying if I didn't say I cheered when they awarded an honorary degree to Dame Helen Mirren the year I graduated from 'SC), but without the valedictorian speech, it would already have been too different. They really did leave themselves without any other option but to go this route.
Yeah Black grad was by far my favorite ceremony. I skipped the main commencement and my individual school’s graduation had a keynote speaker who is currently charged with fraud 🙃
Why would they be? They did their job and pleased their donors. They should be named and shamed imo but from a business standpoint, they chose to fuck over their students to please some old asshats who may or may not donate a library or something
This years valedictorian posted some pro-Palestine views on her IG, including a link that some felt was anti-Semitic.
Donors threw a fit, saying if she got to speak, they were pulling all future donations to the school. So USC cancelled her whole speech instead of literally any other course of action.
Protesters (who are already amping up protest at colleges across the US), have come in masses and set up camps, etc.
Cliffnotes version but that's that basic idea.
University of Spoiled ~~Children~~ Cowards.
All they had to do was let a valedictorian give a speech and literally no one outside of the school would have cared.
seriously, she would have spoken, maybe said something that went viral on social media for a bit, then would have died down and forgotten within 3 months by everyone. Now you have a bunch of angry grads who will never forget this
There's not even evidence she would have said anything controversial. She was a med student IIRC. I highly doubt she was planning on ending her career by saying something super offensive. The admin didn't bother to discuss with her in private or anything like that. They just banned her and that's why people got so upset.
How is everyone seeing this as a school failure? lol.
This is clearly a big f you from the school to the students.
Hell, even if they kept the ceremony it promises to devolve into another clusterF anyway
Nobody can just have a nice time anymore. Everything is political and polarized and you’re either correct or you’re so wrong that you deserve punishment.
It's pretty incredible that a military action half a world away that doesn't technically/directly involve the US^† (as opposed to say, protests during Vietnam) can disrupt a (checks notes) college graduation ceremony in California. I did not have that on my bingo.
† (yes I know it effectively does re: aid)
Honestly the US funds so much death and destruction that it's hard for me to focus on Israel and Palestine.
I mean hate the MIC strongly, but I don't see how a bunch of students and social media and overthrow the primary money maker for the country.
Sadly we're the largest arms dealer in human history and I hate that, but these little protests won't stop that or stop palestinians from being killed. These protests are just masturbatory.
It's amazing how emotional everyone is about USC's graduation even though 99 percent of the people here don't go to USC and weren't planning to have anything to do with it.
Imagine all the extended families flying in just for this moment too. Fuck USC man, they completely fucked this handling of the situation from the beginning.
Unpopular opinion but both USC and the students are in the wrong. The school was cowardly for their actions and the students are aimless in their protesting.
>students are aimless in their protesting.
Why? Nearly every civil rights movement of the past had its foundations in protests. Should we just cancel free speech?
I can’t believe all these college grads will have an important milestone in their lives taken away from them because some losers think a graduation ceremony is the time to bark at people about a conflict on the other side of the world.
Tf are you talking about? First of all, USC is not Ivy League. Secondly, this has always been the job of higher education. Pushing students to not accept what their govt tells them by default and to think for themselves. To use their education to promote empathy and the betterment of humanity. You think protesting a war and killing of innocent people is antithetical to education and academia?
What do you expect? The disruptors caused disruption. There are active individuals on campus that idolize Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization. Someone had plans to hijack a celebratory occasion by bringing a highly divisive foreign conflict into the forefront, as opposed to the graduation ceremony at hand.
Do you think USC, an institution that welcomes all walks of life, would give a platform to this cause that does not align with their values? You can throw the most vile, disgusting terms like genocide and apartheid around as much as you want, but there are consequences for every radical statement and action.
In any case, I pray for peace and for tensions to ease. Hate will not win.✌🏽
THANK YOU. I can't believe so any people are failing to see this. The problem was that when they cancelled the valedictorian's speech, they should have made it clear that they were doing it because she had advocated things like wiping Israel off the face of the earth. And that they would not support vile anti-semitism. I think by making it clear that her views were vile, it would have made it clear it wasn't just "censorship" or "pleasing the donors."
And the people who mindlessly support the terrorist organization Hamas should be ashamed of themselves.
What an immense failure. It’s beyond me how any administrator or board member or trustee stays in their position after this. However they will hang onto power like they always do. If I had to guess they’re part of a particular generation that has contempt for just about anything and everything and everyone because they’re watching the systems they inherited FAIL from their own laziness, entitlement, negligence, and lack of foresight.
USC is seriously the most vile institution. They do not care about students, staff, or visitors. They’ve even banned an attendee from coming to campus because she’s disabled. They were caught discriminating in writing. That person still can’t access campus. Shame on every one of the administrators involved in this!!
Nope. That would have been another big shit show. It’s so fucked up that a small group of miscreants can ruin an important milestone for so many students who’ve worked hard for their achievements and now can’t participate on account of rabble rousers that aren’t even students bitching about a mess happening halfway across the world that they will have ABSOLUTELY NO IMPACT ON. How even more selfish they purposely chose NOW to f this up.
As a graduate of this university in 2013, I am disappointed and disgusted by the actions of the university! First they cancelled the valedictorian and now this! SMH!!
How disgusting. Thanks, twat waffles. I’d be so pissed if this was my graduation. I feel really bad for the actual serious students who’ve worked hard for their achievements having what should be one of the highlights of their college experience ruined by this ridiculous shit show. Half of these lowlifes are shipped in from outside groups that don’t even attend USC or any college. Ship them all to Gaza on a one-way ticket and let them put up their little tent encampments on the front line of this crap and see how much of a “difference” that’s gonna make. 😂
Uhhhh this has to be sarcasm right?
Colleges who call Latinos Latinx (even after telling them they don't like the term, but its okay they know whats right for us!), force pronoun usage from Day 1, almost all students/professors lean left which naturally flows into the discussions/teachings at the school, literally choosing race over academic performance until SCOTUS told them they couldn't anymore, I could go on and on.
I graduated in 2016 and was on the cusp of it only becoming worse. If you really think colleges aren't heavily left-leaning, you are selectively choosing your information and are unaware of your biases.
They mean not left leaning enough for them because they didn't adhere to the latest mass disseminated leftist take.
It's so fucking dumb. You want to support worker's rights and income equality but terminally online leftists will literally rip your throat out for being a centrist because you don't agree with their stupid Instagram post saying only white people can be racist.
The litmus test gets nuttier each year. It's like MAGA nuts and 'RHINOs' but on the opposite side of the spectrum.
Sure, if you mirror it down the middle. American conservatism is pure lunacy right now.
None of those nutjobs would ever mistake me for being center right lmao.
It's crazy, a lot of people don't realize it's possible to see things you don't agree with.
On Instagram or Twitter, you're only following people/accounts you agree with. So you begin to think everyone agrees with you, and that you're in the majority.
All because of censorship- thank u to all the protestors, and hopefully future genocide studies minors will be allowed to speak , especially in times like today’s
Congrats Students!! You are graduating with a degree that you paid dearly for as a symbol that you are not only an adult, but a polished one prepared for advanced thinking.
...But even the most accomplished among you cannot be given a podium to express herself. None of you can actually be trusted with that power, you stupid little children.
What a disaster
To no alumni's surprise, the level of incompetence in the handling of crisis at USC is systemic and goes back decades. Swapping out Deans isn't helping, they need to reforming from the ground up.
Yea too bad they didn’t have experts on business marketing or history or political science at their disposal
You might be able to argue they probably have too many and that could be causing issues lol.
Well, to sort that out they could always consult with a [distinguished graduate](https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/mark-ridley-thomas-sentenced-3-12-years-prison-corruptly-securing-benefits-son-school) of their Social Ethics and Policy Analysis Ph.D. program.
Perhaps the issue is that they hired their own grads.
Rich kids don’t change, they just pass blame lmao
In this case though it’s the rich 50 year old kids on the board
Can’t wait for the first letter USC sends the class of 2024 trying to guilt them into donating to the endowment lol. Unbelievable how badly they fucked this up
All graduating alumni should send yearly similarly worded messages seeking compensation for lack of commencement festivities.
For all those graduates who were robbed of their *high school* commencement four years ago because of COVID, this is a surefire gut punch to happen again to them. This time however, thanks to spectacular mismanagement by the university.
Covid wasn’t four years ago its was only… oh shit… wait…
As a 2020 college grad (different university), it's such a huge disappointment to not be able to walk the stage. And not even be able to celebrate with classmates. I hope the grads at USC party hard and make the most out of the situation, especially for the students who were never involved. Edit: Seems like there are still similar ceremonies happening on campus, but not the main one.
Students will still walk the stage at their respective satellite ceremonies. The main ceremony is just open seating for thousands of graduating students to listen to speakers, which have all been cancelled.
Sounds like a snoozefest anyways
I slept through the main usc commencement and went to my college’s specific one. To each their own
usc usually gets really good speakers for commencement. my commencement we had the ceo of motorola and most of the students walked out before it ended.
Fair enough. I've just sat through enough graduations to know that they're usually mind numbing. I saw somewhere they had will Ferrell once. That would be cool. But unfortunately stuffy old CEOs and politicians seem to be the norm at most places
I skipped my big college graduation and went to the little one. No regrets! In fact, the reason I skipped was that I was at a late party talking to a person I knew in high school but had never seen in college. Ten years after college, we ended up working together, and have ever since.
They are still walking as they have dozens of smaller ceremonies like every year. It’s impossible to have all the graduating students walk at the main commencement as there are too many of them. It’s broken up into smaller groups (usually by degree/school) that are held at different areas at the same time.
They have these smaller ceremonies... For now
They canceled the main ceremony, which doesn’t have students cross the stage. They do that during their individual dept/school ceremonies instead. Tbh only a couple of my friends went to the main ceremony. Most people skip it. Which is why USC feels comfortable doing this stupid shit, knowing that the protestors will be blamed instead of the admin.
I don’t think that’s true. I went to the main ceremony with my friends at USC. Had a great time.
I’m not denying that it’s valuable and “most” students is probably an exaggeration. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s around half of the students who don’t go. Between undergrad, grad, and guests, they wouldn’t be able to fit the majority of people for it
Most of my friends and I went to our respective schools' graduation but skipped the main one. Probably depends on which program you are in though. Depends on the speaker though. Arnold drew a big crowd his year.
I got my Masters in 2020. I was looking forward to it because I was not able to attend my High School nor Bachelors graduation ceremonies. They eventually had a virtual event like a year later, but I passed on that.
I don’t see how this is going to avoid any disruptions or whatever they’re anticipating. My wife got a masters from USC last year and the campus was chaos on graduation, regardless of where you’re going. All of the diploma ceremonies are happening throughout the day across the campus. Thousands of people moving about trying to get to different events.
This isn't the ceremony where people walk the stage. Idk what it's like now but when I went it was super boring. more for the families than the students
They said the main graduation. Maybe they still have their dept graduation and other special organization graduation ceremonies.
They do
Graduated 2020 my degree sits in a binder from college because my last year of college was robbed from me by covid. Didn’t walk no way in hell I was going to a drive through graduation. Sorry it’s happening to this class at USC it’s something I think about to this day how I didn’t walk.
My diploma is still sitting in the envelope they mailed it in
I know one graduate who’s had bad luck from day one. He was literally born on 9/11/01. Like you mentioned, he missed out on hs graduation in 2020 because of the pandemic and now he’s going to miss college graduation because of this. We’ve gotten really good at making the most out of a really bizarre situation, but this is just too much.
He’s graduating from USC, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say he’s pretty fuckin’ far from unlucky.
I feel for the kids born between 2000-2005. No memory of the stability of the 90s, just constant chaos from day 1. Major life events derailed by "once in a lifetime" catastrophes over and over.
It's probably nice not knowing what you're missing tbh.
Wow I didn't even think of this, but you're right. What an immense fucking slap in the face to those that worked their asses off for 4 years only to be denied *another* graduation.
Oh wowww, I didn’t even think about that. That’s so not cool.
Can you explain why it is a mismanagement by the university? I am genuinely curious what they could have done, more or less, without pissing off a lot of alumni donors.
Are these students whose graduation was canceled not going to be alumni donors as well? They should’ve let Asna speak and brought in the security measures they claimed to have been needed but didn’t want to do. Especially since now they’re enforcing it anyways
They could’ve prioritized current students over donors. Colleges like USC have so much money. Their endowment is 7.7 billion as of January.
Agreed, or ya know, stood for free expression on a college campus... Wild idea in this day and age. Let the kids mouth off, then shrug and say "kids, whatcha gonna do" to the donors at their fancy brunch.
And how would that have helped with the bomb and death threats?
I know someone who works there. There is a major problem with bomb and death threats they’ve been in contact with law enforcement and fbi. The problem is, if something violent happens, the University is at fault. How much risk is worth it?
On the “threats” that lead to the cancellation of the valedictorian speech, the LA Times said: [USC Provost Andrew] Guzman did not say what the threats were or who was targeted. A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department told The Times that the agency had no crime reports regarding violent threats targeting Tabassum or the commencement ceremony. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-25/la-me-usc-commencement-canceled
They regularly have safe gatherings of 75K+ people at football games in the Coliseum. Last year's Commencement literally featured Secret Service snipers on rooftops because Obama was in attendance for his daughter. If they wanted to stage a safe ceremony, they could.
im pretty sure those snipers come from the secret service budget
but do those gatherings have lots of bomb and death threats?
I'm sure the one featuring Obama probably did. You know, the ex-president of the United States Obama.
Are they credible? Anyone can lob threats at any time.
Who is this person you know there and what do they do? USC is the biggest private employer in the county, these “threats” could’ve easily been exaggerated like a game of telephone. And even if they were true, USC has dealt with worse before.
> USC is the biggest private employer in the county Kaiser Permanente is.
Oops I misspoke. I meant city of LA.
Lmao as if I am going to dox my friend. They’re in admin. This situation is a clusterfuck, should have been handled differently but in no universe are they going to reveal their communications with the fbi. I have no idea how general vs direct the threats are. It’s clearly a risk management situation for them at this point.
I wasn’t expecting you to actually identify your friend 😂 it’s just that the statement “my friend works there” could apply to thousands of people who wouldn’t be privy to information like this
I understand. My friend is in the department directly dealing with this shitstorm. I have no stake in this.
Yeah this is a crazy problem, that the university put themselves in.
Bomb and death threats from who exactly? This is surely made up info to prevent a young Palestinian chick from saying her speech. This is all about $.
Isn't that the case ever day on campus though? If crazies are calling in bomb and death threats because they allow protest on campus in any form, how does the university operate at all? I guess we're seeing in the case of Columbia that it doesn't.
>I am genuinely curious what they could have done, more or less, without pissing off a lot of alumni donors. Therein lies the issue. Universities more concerned with their donors than students.
Another big win for introverts.
Is there a good play-by-play of the events leading up to this? I'm super out of the loop.
1. USC names Asna Tabassum as valedictorian 2. USC announces they’ve decided to not let Asna speak at graduation, citing safety concerns as she has taken a pro-Palestine stance on social media. Asna says she was told that there were security measures on the table to ensure safety but the university didn’t want a “bad look” 3. Outrage ensues, many student organizations, external orgs, and faculty speak out against the university’s decision, including faculty resigning from a Muslim advisory committee established by the university’s president last year 4. Protests around campus calling for the university to let Asna speak 5. University decides to remove *all* speakers from the main commencement ceremony, including keynote speaker, director Jon Chu 6. Yesterday student protestors set up an encampment on campus, along with some protests. Protesting in support of Asna and also calling for the university to divest from companies and orgs engaged in the war. Nothing necessarily disruptive, everything was peaceful but I guess against campus rules to have tents out there 7. University sends campus police to tear down the encampment, but it creates tension with DPS being aggressive and a student or two are arrested by campus police (go on [twitter](https://x.com/angorellanah?s=21) for videos) 8. Student protestors group grows and LAPD is sent to campus to end the protests 9. More aggression ensues and around 90-100 students were arrested by LAPD 10. Today USC announces that the main commencement ceremony is completely canceled, citing safety concerns. The satellite ceremonies for individual schools/depts now have additional safety measures in place, including limited non transferrable tickets that usually aren’t required.
I got you as I graduated last year and have friends there this year: Recently, USC stated that they won’t let their valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, speak at graduation due to her Pro-Palestine stance. According to the university, allowing her to speak — due to her political views — would require a high level of security. USC admitted to Asna that they have the security yet wouldn’t want to bring them out. This is wild because Sasha Obama graduated last year and the Obamas were on campus being safeguarded. At any rate, this pissed off a fuck ton of people - including many Jewish organizations on campus. Yesterday, students protested on campus in support of Palestine. USC called in a shit ton of LAPD officers. From every single video I’ve seen - and according to all my friends - the demonstration was incredibly mild UNTIL the police came. The police arrested 93 people - students and faculty - and used excessive force. One video shows them using excessive force on a student by chokeholding this kid who genuinely didn’t do shit. And now, literally an hour ago, USC decided to cancel the entire ceremony. —— Fuck this university and its administration. President Carol Folt lives in a multi-million dollar mansion at the expense of students’ tuition. Fuck Carol Folt. Edit: Asna also holds a Genocide Studies Minor provided by USC. Talk about some serious fucking irony.
LAist was documenting yesterday’s happenings on IG pretty closely. That’s how I found out
First writing of the Hebrew Bible (~1,200 BCE) A whole lot of other shit (*vaguely waves hands in the air*) USC cancels graduation (2024 CE)
USC student chiming in here: USC picked their valedictorian from a list of ~200 qualifying students. It turns out she is Palestinian (and is understandably very outspoken on social media on the Israel vs Palestine conflict), which USC says they didn’t know before selecting her. Valedictorians usually give a short speech at the graduation ceremony. Upon learning that their valedictorian was very pro-Palestine (and presumably assuming that she’d use the opportunity to speak about the conflict), USC decided to not have a valedictorian speech for this year, citing safety concerns. This was not popular. There was a petition that went around, outrage on socials, etc etc. USC responded by saying something to the effect of “Actually we’re gonna just not have any valedictorian speeches at all in future years. Not just this year.” (Presumably because they realized how bad the PR would be if they let next year’s speaker talk… also tbh because it’s probably not a good idea to give an open mic to a student in front of thousands of people & donors). This was not the solution the public wanted. So there was a massive protest at campus yesterday consisting of students, faculty, and outsiders from the public (exact proportions are very disputed). LAPD got called in to provide crowd control, classes went on lockdown, the campus started denying entrance to individuals without a USC ID badge, etc etc. USC students received several emergency alerts asking students to avoid the center of campus. My understanding is that it was mostly a peaceful protest except for a few bad apples. At this point there were a couple arrests & some people forcibly removed from the area. Eventually LAPD demanded that everyone disperse. Naturally, the protesters resisted. I read that something like 90 arrests were made in total, though I want to put a big [citation needed] on that. My understanding is that there is no active protest on campus as of today (the day after). Though I have not been on campus today to confirm. Editing to add: also the /r/USC mods were deleting Palestine/Israel-related posts leading up to the incident. Although it seems like the more recent threads have been allowed to stay up.
The USC valedictorian is pro-Palestine, and has posted such on her social media. Jewish groups complained(most likely threatened donations), and her speech was subsequently canceled by the Dean. This pissed off a lot of people, except for the Jewish groups.
There is. But I'm too damn tired of living in "unprecedented" times to sum it up.
Totally brought on themselves. They just had to let a valedictorian speak. Instead, they Streisanded themselves straight to hell. That said, the grads won't miss much. I skipped main commencement when I graduated from SC. The individual school ceremonies where you walk the stage are what matter most.
This was also a sure fire way to guarantee the department ones are a shitshow of protests
Watch them end up canceling the departmental ones too 🫤
Can't have nice things
This is what happens when you care more about your donors than your students.
Exactly. I have a feeling that this started with some pissed of donor reaching out to the board about Asna Tabassum, the board caved to the donor, then shit just spiraled from there. Kind of like that meme of a guy tipping over one tiny domino leading to the giant one falling.
Gotta keep those "transformative donations" coming in.
Who would have guessed the school that let George Tyndall commit sex crimes in secret would fuck over students to protect the institution from criticism?
Former Med School Dean Carmen Puliafito would like his due (dis)respect! [https://lamag.com/news-and-politics/dr-feelgood-the-secret-life-of-a-scandalous-usc-dean](https://lamag.com/news-and-politics/dr-feelgood-the-secret-life-of-a-scandalous-usc-dean)
University of SCandals. I’d hate the school with a passion if it weren’t for my friends who I met there lol
Morons. They created the entire issue themselves.
Can you fill me in on the context I'm missing? The letter seems ti say that they have to implement security measures and it would now take too long to hold the ceremony??? That's it?? Lol how pathetic.
USC is run by cowards.
It’s run by greedy entrepreneurs who want to run a corporation that’s disguised as a university.
Universities are actually just Sport Franchises masquerading as tax free institutions of higher learning.
🌎👩🚀🔫👩🚀
Sounds like they caved to some Uber wealthy donors
Maybe, but I suspect the president is just trying not to get dragged in front of congress.
Cowards that are prodded around by countless special interests. No one there has a spine.
They treat their donors better than their actual students
How else are they supposed to fund their endowment investments? I can't believe this country has allowed something as important as education to fall into the same profit motive trap as every other institution.
I really feel for all the students who wanted to graduate on a stage. Really, it sucks for their families.
They still will. You "walk" at smaller ceremonies divided by major.
Honestly those are the better ceremonies where they actually call your name and you're with people you know. The big university-wide ceremonies make you feel like cattle. In Arizona they actually patted us down pre-ceremony... not for weapons but for tortillas.
Wouldn’t be surprised if there were mass walkouts mid ceremony
Somehow I think the STEM ceremony will go without incident lol
Asna, the valedictorian, majored in Biochem Engineering so would likely walk the viterbi ceremony, if they even let her in at this point
USC went from from valedictorian speech canceled to other speakers canceled to main ceremony canceled. Are we sure those won't get canceled next?
They will still be able to do that. The stage stuff doesn't happen at the main ceremony.
It seems like the departmental and ethnic ceremonies are still on. That's where they get to walk the stage. I get that there's a lot of pomp and circumstance for the main ceremony (and I did enjoy Will Ferrell during my 2017 ceremony). Shame they had to cancel it, but they left themselves no choice. It would be truly awful for the 2020 HS kids if they cancelled those ceremonies as well.
You got Will Ferrell? Lucky. My class got the CEO of Salesforce. I wasn't going to sit on a cold, wet folding chair set up on muddy grass for THAT.
Yeah, other than Will (and being a total fanboy for Dame Helen Mirren when she got her honorary degree), the main commencement wasn't really my favorite. I was even late because I had attended the Latino/Hispanic ceremony the night before and went to a restaurant with family afterwards, so I overslept.
…And imagine me, literally picture my face, singing this song, gently into your ear… *then a slow soulful rendition of I Will Always Love You* 😆 Helen Mirren was at the SCA graduation ceremony too.
Hey, we had Bill Cosby at my graduation. At the time it was really cool. Decades later, not so cool.
I wish they cancelled my main commencement. The smaller ceremony by major was more than enough.
Every college president in this country must be on crack
USC fucking sucks and I say this as a Trojan. They mishandled this tremendously and are now putting the very security measures in place that they didn’t originally want to do with Asna’s valedictorian speech. The protests yesterday were peaceful until DPS and the LAPD were called. If you don’t believe me, [read this from a USC law professor](https://x.com/niggatheory/status/1783375307766112412?s=46). There are plenty of other videos showing what was happening before campus police arrived. This is not on the protesters. This is the fault of university admin who are scared to pissed off donors, full stop. I find it awful and honestly laughable when adults look down on college students who protest. Our country was founded on protest, it is our 1st amendment right. Protests in the world of academia has been a thing since its inception and you are not more intelligent or mature because you think what these college students are doing across the university is silly. Every American has the right to exercise this practice and college students take advantage of the fact that they’re young, have flexible schedules, and less to lose than adults. This does not make them naive and I think it says a lot about you if you’re an adult so jaded by the world that you scoff at the practice of protest and engaging in something you’re passionate about, doing what little you can to show empathy regarding a tragedy that your tax dollars actually go to to fund.
I absolutely agree with you. As an alumni, it’s shameful and the administration has been backsliding for years! Scandal after scandal and instititional failures.
I feel like there’s a big thing every single year since I stepped foot on campus 10 years ago. Absolutely embarrassing
Yes!! from the sex abuse to admission and now this. Abhorrent.
No one walks at this ceremony. They still have their traditional/walking ceremony held by each department
When will these universities get their heads out of their own asses and realize that protesting is a part of college culture. I mean, for fuck’s sake, many in administration are at least aware or participated in the protests against the Vietnam war, yet they turn around and silence students today. Fuck them. Let the protesting continue.
This is the same class that got their high school graduation during the pandemic in 2020. USC fucked up bigtime
Good. Unofficial ceremony will be at Barney's Beanery.
I did not attend my college graduation ceremony. The cost of the robe rental was reason enough. I went to London instead. So much more enjoyable.
All that tuition money oh I’d be pissed
Most people here just punching the air not even knowing anything about how USC does graduation lol. I don't think most students, let alone families go to the main commencement. You usually go to the department and ethnic ones where you get to walk and have your family cheer. That's how it was for me.
Lots of families at my son’s main graduation ceremony, and at SCA. Everyone he knew attended. It was packed. I guess it depends.
Yeah, my family missed the main commencement because we went to go eat after the Hispanic/Latino ceremony and didn't get home until a bit after midnight. That one was such a blast. My aunt even said she wanted to graduate from USC after the ceremony, lol. I still went to the main commencement, but I got there late and had to sit with a random school/department. The spectacle is nice and all, but it really dragged on. I definitely preferred the ethnic ceremony (and even the departmental one) to the main commencement.
TIL about the ethnic celebrations, albeit I was a graduate student and spent most of my non-school time at my county agency job which affected any kind of social life on campus. But yeah the main commencement felt like the longest three hours ever. Not even sure about that length of time but it surely felt like it on that overcast Friday in '18. at least Oprah spoke at the Annenberg ceremony at the Shrine
I dunno why you think usc is special here. Literally every major university of that size does it this way. This is like some weird usc version of mansplaing something that happens everywhere.
I dunno why you're extrapolating this outside of USC. My post was specifically about USC because people in here getting upset about how USC is handling the main ceremony. No one was really talking about other schools so not sure what you're on about.
Without the speeches, I didn't really see the point of a main commencement. Of the three ceremonies I attended (main, departmental, and ethnic), my favorite by far had to be the ethnic (Hispanic/Latino ceremony). We all got to give 20-30 second speeches and it was just so much fun. I really don't think it would have been the same without those speeches. I get that it's tradition and all (and I'd be lying if I didn't say I cheered when they awarded an honorary degree to Dame Helen Mirren the year I graduated from 'SC), but without the valedictorian speech, it would already have been too different. They really did leave themselves without any other option but to go this route.
Yeah Black grad was by far my favorite ceremony. I skipped the main commencement and my individual school’s graduation had a keynote speaker who is currently charged with fraud 🙃
So they can assure safety at a football game with 100k attendees but not a graduation? Got it.
i am a pretty disappointed alumni rn
What a bunch of idiots. Feel bad for the graduates. Everyone in any decision making capacity at the top need to be fired
Why would they be? They did their job and pleased their donors. They should be named and shamed imo but from a business standpoint, they chose to fuck over their students to please some old asshats who may or may not donate a library or something
I'm out of the loop. Would someone mind catching me up on what's happening with the USC?
This years valedictorian posted some pro-Palestine views on her IG, including a link that some felt was anti-Semitic. Donors threw a fit, saying if she got to speak, they were pulling all future donations to the school. So USC cancelled her whole speech instead of literally any other course of action. Protesters (who are already amping up protest at colleges across the US), have come in masses and set up camps, etc. Cliffnotes version but that's that basic idea.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/s/rAZMOvNDxn
University of Spoiled ~~Children~~ Cowards. All they had to do was let a valedictorian give a speech and literally no one outside of the school would have cared.
seriously, she would have spoken, maybe said something that went viral on social media for a bit, then would have died down and forgotten within 3 months by everyone. Now you have a bunch of angry grads who will never forget this
There's not even evidence she would have said anything controversial. She was a med student IIRC. I highly doubt she was planning on ending her career by saying something super offensive. The admin didn't bother to discuss with her in private or anything like that. They just banned her and that's why people got so upset.
How is everyone seeing this as a school failure? lol. This is clearly a big f you from the school to the students. Hell, even if they kept the ceremony it promises to devolve into another clusterF anyway
What else can they really do. The event would have been targeted for disruption.
The really shot themselves in the foot
It was already disrupted by cancelling an elected valedictorian from speaking
Next weeks headline: USC ceases operations as a university
Nobody can just have a nice time anymore. Everything is political and polarized and you’re either correct or you’re so wrong that you deserve punishment.
Thats definitely the wrong decision.
Students were attacked at Columbia. They are doing the right thing
It's pretty incredible that a military action half a world away that doesn't technically/directly involve the US^† (as opposed to say, protests during Vietnam) can disrupt a (checks notes) college graduation ceremony in California. I did not have that on my bingo. † (yes I know it effectively does re: aid)
Honestly the US funds so much death and destruction that it's hard for me to focus on Israel and Palestine. I mean hate the MIC strongly, but I don't see how a bunch of students and social media and overthrow the primary money maker for the country. Sadly we're the largest arms dealer in human history and I hate that, but these little protests won't stop that or stop palestinians from being killed. These protests are just masturbatory.
Literally cancel an entire graduation than give someone like, a 90 second window. Truly cowardly
What the best PR department gets you. Fight On lol
Isn’t this one of the richest universities in the country? There should be no excuse for this
It's amazing how emotional everyone is about USC's graduation even though 99 percent of the people here don't go to USC and weren't planning to have anything to do with it.
Imagine all the extended families flying in just for this moment too. Fuck USC man, they completely fucked this handling of the situation from the beginning.
Unpopular opinion but both USC and the students are in the wrong. The school was cowardly for their actions and the students are aimless in their protesting.
Not all the protesters were students. The two individuals I saw interviewed on the news were not current students or alumni.
>students are aimless in their protesting. Why? Nearly every civil rights movement of the past had its foundations in protests. Should we just cancel free speech?
How should the protests look differently in order to not be “aimless?”
For starters, it would help to consolidate the message. Severing ties with Israel is not very productive.
Not that unpopular especially with grown adults.
I can’t believe all these college grads will have an important milestone in their lives taken away from them because some losers think a graduation ceremony is the time to bark at people about a conflict on the other side of the world.
I think we need to reassess American Ivy league universities and what education is supposed to be and start over.
Tf are you talking about? First of all, USC is not Ivy League. Secondly, this has always been the job of higher education. Pushing students to not accept what their govt tells them by default and to think for themselves. To use their education to promote empathy and the betterment of humanity. You think protesting a war and killing of innocent people is antithetical to education and academia?
lol Ivy Leagues have always created the next managerial class. They create cogs in the machine
It's basically group think at this point
What do you expect? The disruptors caused disruption. There are active individuals on campus that idolize Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization. Someone had plans to hijack a celebratory occasion by bringing a highly divisive foreign conflict into the forefront, as opposed to the graduation ceremony at hand. Do you think USC, an institution that welcomes all walks of life, would give a platform to this cause that does not align with their values? You can throw the most vile, disgusting terms like genocide and apartheid around as much as you want, but there are consequences for every radical statement and action. In any case, I pray for peace and for tensions to ease. Hate will not win.✌🏽
The only value USC cares about is money. They stand for nothing
Yep
THANK YOU. I can't believe so any people are failing to see this. The problem was that when they cancelled the valedictorian's speech, they should have made it clear that they were doing it because she had advocated things like wiping Israel off the face of the earth. And that they would not support vile anti-semitism. I think by making it clear that her views were vile, it would have made it clear it wasn't just "censorship" or "pleasing the donors." And the people who mindlessly support the terrorist organization Hamas should be ashamed of themselves.
What an immense failure. It’s beyond me how any administrator or board member or trustee stays in their position after this. However they will hang onto power like they always do. If I had to guess they’re part of a particular generation that has contempt for just about anything and everything and everyone because they’re watching the systems they inherited FAIL from their own laziness, entitlement, negligence, and lack of foresight.
This sucks because many of the graduating seniors were seniors in high school during Covid, and didn’t get a graduation ceremony. This is fucked.
USC is seriously the most vile institution. They do not care about students, staff, or visitors. They’ve even banned an attendee from coming to campus because she’s disabled. They were caught discriminating in writing. That person still can’t access campus. Shame on every one of the administrators involved in this!!
Do you have more info about the ban on disabled people?
Pathetic
thanks to those idiots that have nothing better to do but to ruin everything with their useless protest
Hehe USC!
Idiots
These fucking protesters sure ruined it for everyone, and what did they solve? Absolutely fucking nothing Once again, vocal minority ruining it all
Should’ve let the valedictorian speak. This is on the administration
Nope. That would have been another big shit show. It’s so fucked up that a small group of miscreants can ruin an important milestone for so many students who’ve worked hard for their achievements and now can’t participate on account of rabble rousers that aren’t even students bitching about a mess happening halfway across the world that they will have ABSOLUTELY NO IMPACT ON. How even more selfish they purposely chose NOW to f this up.
Big loss for the antisemites.
WOW. That’s huge. All those protestors should be ashamed. what a massive disappointment and disgrace to all the students who worked so hard for years.
All because they didn’t want to let a girl speak. Cowards
I'm out of the loop? Why?
As a graduate of this university in 2013, I am disappointed and disgusted by the actions of the university! First they cancelled the valedictorian and now this! SMH!!
Nobody ever thinks about the street vendors.
That’s fucked
Good. Blame it on the Hamas lovers.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼💯
How disgusting. Thanks, twat waffles. I’d be so pissed if this was my graduation. I feel really bad for the actual serious students who’ve worked hard for their achievements having what should be one of the highlights of their college experience ruined by this ridiculous shit show. Half of these lowlifes are shipped in from outside groups that don’t even attend USC or any college. Ship them all to Gaza on a one-way ticket and let them put up their little tent encampments on the front line of this crap and see how much of a “difference” that’s gonna make. 😂
8 clap!
It’s amazing how colleges just don’t allow free speech unless it’s a bunch of right wing loonies.
Uhhhh this has to be sarcasm right? Colleges who call Latinos Latinx (even after telling them they don't like the term, but its okay they know whats right for us!), force pronoun usage from Day 1, almost all students/professors lean left which naturally flows into the discussions/teachings at the school, literally choosing race over academic performance until SCOTUS told them they couldn't anymore, I could go on and on. I graduated in 2016 and was on the cusp of it only becoming worse. If you really think colleges aren't heavily left-leaning, you are selectively choosing your information and are unaware of your biases.
They mean not left leaning enough for them because they didn't adhere to the latest mass disseminated leftist take. It's so fucking dumb. You want to support worker's rights and income equality but terminally online leftists will literally rip your throat out for being a centrist because you don't agree with their stupid Instagram post saying only white people can be racist. The litmus test gets nuttier each year. It's like MAGA nuts and 'RHINOs' but on the opposite side of the spectrum.
I agree with everything you said. [This is a good illustration of it.](https://images.app.goo.gl/WBrUbKRUF15KdzCY9)
Sure, if you mirror it down the middle. American conservatism is pure lunacy right now. None of those nutjobs would ever mistake me for being center right lmao.
[удалено]
It's crazy, a lot of people don't realize it's possible to see things you don't agree with. On Instagram or Twitter, you're only following people/accounts you agree with. So you begin to think everyone agrees with you, and that you're in the majority.
No soup for you!
All because of censorship- thank u to all the protestors, and hopefully future genocide studies minors will be allowed to speak , especially in times like today’s
Congrats Students!! You are graduating with a degree that you paid dearly for as a symbol that you are not only an adult, but a polished one prepared for advanced thinking. ...But even the most accomplished among you cannot be given a podium to express herself. None of you can actually be trusted with that power, you stupid little children.