LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Student organizations say: Let our valedictorian speak at commencement
Our open letter has been co-signed by 65 University student and local organizations.
By TROJANS FOR PALESTINE & 65 CO-SIGNERS
We, as members of the concerned USC student body, write this letter of our own accord.
Earlier this month, the USC administration announced Asna Tabassum as the valedictorian for the Class of 2024. Just minutes after the announcement, anti-Palestinian students and groups initiated an onslaught of hate and harassment across social media, with the goal of intimidating Tabassum and forcing her removal as valedictorian.
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While the administration brought national attention to our valedictorian, selected by a committee of USC faculty for her academic and extracurricular achievements, the administration offered no public support for her during this extremely tumultuous time.
It was then announced that she would not be speaking at graduation.
As students of this University, we are beyond outraged and ashamed at the administration’s decision to bar our valedictorian from speaking at our upcoming Class of 2024 commencement and emphatically denounce this decision and the repressive sentiment it embodies.
We would like to make this very clear: When you are silencing her, you are silencing all of us.
When USC uses the rhetoric of safety to justify its decision while refusing to provide safety measures to a threatened student, we know it means the safety of USC receiving donations, not the safety of its students.
We have demanded time and time again that this University, at the very least, humanize Arab, Palestinian, Muslim and other marginalized students by acknowledging our experiences. But rather than believing and supporting us, USC perpetuates and engages in Islamophobia and xenophobia by bowing to anonymous, violent harassment campaigns that aim to harm people’s lives.
While we continue to fight for the rights of our siblings in Palestine, our emotions run high behind closed doors. We scream and cry and shake. We miss classes because of our anxiety and anger, all while this University continues to ignore us while uplifting spiteful individuals who belittle us.
Our academic and extracurricular performances suffer, because USC’s leadership shows how little it cares for our safety and existence. This is not to say that the repression we face at USC is anywhere comparable to the atrocities suffered by the Palestinian people.
Still, they undeniably exist in relation to each other: By submitting to the unfounded and hateful demands of Islamophobic and racist individuals, USC facilitates public consent for this genocide and the threat of those who oppose it — even as its students and faculty relentlessly express their disdain for the actions and decisions of the University regarding its lack of support for the Palestinian cause.
Despite quickly condemning the Oct. 7 attacks, President Folt has refused to acknowledge the ongoing genocide in Palestine, widely recognized as such by the international community in accordance with international law. By doing so, the flawed values and priorities of the University become glaringly obvious.
USC cares more to appease its donors and maintain its investments than to maintain any degree of a moral backbone. And now that Provost Andrew Guzman silenced one of USC’s own from speaking at one of the most significant events in a student’s academic career — a position that Tabassum, like all other past valedictorians, earned through four years of hard work in an extremely rigorous academic program — the University’s disturbing spinelessness is irrefutable and damaging.
USC has done everything short of removing Middle Eastern, North African and pro-Palestinian students from campus in their continued validation of Islamophobic bullying and threats of violence against our community.
We are not welcome here.
We demand that the University recognize its grave error and allow Tabassum to give her speech at graduation, provide her with whatever safety measures she requests — as has been provided for former presidents and governors, royalty, artists, musicians, professional athletes and others — and publicly apologize to her for acquiescing to a campaign of intimidation and harassment.
In solidarity,
Trojans for Palestine
USC Muslim Student Union
USC Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation
The Trojan Left
USC Graduate Students for Palestine
National Lawyers Guild at USC Gould
Jewish Voice for Peace USC
Reimagine Public Safety USC
USC Native American Student Assembly
USC Community for Asian Solidarity & Empowerment
USC Gender and Sexuality Studies Undergraduate Council
USC Association for Computing Machinery
USC Student Sustainability Committee
USC Environmental Student Assembly
Graduate Student Worker Organizing Committee-USC
USC Troy Philippines
Asian American Journalists Association USC Chapter
USC Spanish Undergraduate Student Association
Blueprints for Pangaea USC Chapter
Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund USC Chapter
Wrongful Convictions Club USC
USC Gould Employment and Labor Law Student Association
SC Garden Club
USC Black Student Assembly
USC Nexus
USC Student Community of PhDs in Education
USC Asian Pacific American Student Assembly
Emergency Medical Services of USC
USC Student Assembly for Gender Empowerment
USC Southern California Indo-Americans
Filipino Initiative for Global Hope and Transformation at USC
USC Transfer Student Assembly
USC Public Policy Undergraduates at Price
USC Descent Magazine
USC Liberty in North Korea
USC Kazan Taiko
USC Hong Kong Student Association
USC Hawai‘i Club
USC Pacific Islander Student Association
USC Chinese American Student Association
Pakistani Student Association at USC
Dear Asian Youth at USC
USC Nikkei Student Union
USC Asian Pacific Cinema Association
USC Latine Student Assembly
USC Asli Baat A Cappella
USC Middle Eastern North African Student Assembly
Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers at USC
USC Taiwanese American Organization
USC Vietnamese Student Association
Mobile Clinic at USC
USC Lebanese Club
Open Alpha USC
USC Clover
USC First Generation Student Assembly
AthenaHacks USC
Improving Dreams, Education, Access and Success at USC
USC Journal of Law and Society
Trojan Review
Trojan BioBusiness Group
USC American Institute of Architecture Students
With solidarity from:
USC Palestine Justice Faculty Group
Law Students for a Free Palestine
USC Alumni Association of Dubai
National Lawyers Guild at UCLA Law
Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA Law
