Reeling from controversy over the selection of valedictorians, the University of Southern California on Friday announced that it will be honoring “Crazy Rich Asians'' director Jon M. Chu and tennis star Billy from its main valedictorian program. They announced that they would exclude outside speakers and award winners, including Gene. king.
A private university in Los Angeles broke with tradition this week by announcing that valedictorian Asna Tabassum, a first-generation Muslim student, would not give the commencement address on May 10, but Jewish groups on campus announced that she would The decision was made in response to the opposition to the election of
Student groups, including Trojan Horses for Israel, cited pro-Palestinian social media links by Tabassum, who is of South Asian descent. After groups voiced their opposition, the university announced it had received a barrage of signals that the graduation ceremony would be canceled.
The university canceled the lecture citing safety concerns, but Tabassum, a biomedical engineering major, said in a statement that he was “shocked” and “deeply disappointed” by the decision. And she questioned her school's motives.
“Significant questions remain as to whether the University of Southern California's decision to rescind my invitation to speak was made solely for safety reasons,” she said.
Following the decision to cancel the speech, the administration has faced several days of protests demanding Tabassum's reinstatement as a speaker.
USC's announcement on Friday followed an inquiry from the New York Times about whether Chu, an alumnus, might withdraw from being the commencement speaker because of the controversy. By the end of the day, the university had removed his name and photo from its graduation website. He then announced that he and the other speakers would be “released.”
“Given the highly publicized circumstances surrounding the Main Stage Graduation Program, university leadership has determined that it is best to remove external speakers and honorees from attending this year’s ceremony.”
Mr. Chu and Mr. King could not be reached for comment.
Earlier this week, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California announced the possibility of representing Ms. Tabassum in a lawsuit against the university, citing a California law known as Leonard's Law that extends First Amendment free speech protections to private individuals. He announced that he is considering it. and public universities within the state.
Mohammad Tajsar, an ACLU attorney in Los Angeles, said USC has a strong private security structure that should be able to handle incidents like this, even if there are safety concerns.
“If the university can live up to the speeches of Ben Shapiro and Milo Yiannopoulos and welcome President Obama and the King of Jordan to commencement, it will certainly endure any burden that comes with celebrating Asna Tabassum as valedictorian. “We will be able to do that,” Tajsar said.
