USC cancels main stage commencement ceremony amid protests sweeping across US college campuses
The University of California has rolled back its commencement celebrations amid protests over Gaza that continue to develop on college campuses across the United States.
The university said that they will not be hosting a main stage ceremony this year due to “new safety measures” substantially increasing the time it will take to process large numbers of guests at the campus.
“We will not be able to host the main stage ceremony that traditionally brings 65,000 students, families, and friends to our campus all at the same time,” USC wrote in an update on Thursday.
Dozens of individual school commencement ceremonies will still take place, as well as departmental activities and receptions, the university said.
The announcement comes days after a decision by the university to cancel the valedictorian address at the commencement ceremony due to security concerns amid the “intensity of feelings” of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the university wrote in another update.
The university is one of many campuses across the country that are staging pro-Palestine protests across the country.
Peaceful protesters at USC were dispersed by armed police in riot gear on Wednesday with rubber bullets, which escalated to the point of police being seen dragging away students’ tents and making several arrests.
The Los Angeles Police Department said they made 93 arrests as a result, adding that no injuries were reported.
A day after the protest disbursement, the USC made its announcement that the main stage ceremony would be cancelled and additional security measures would be in place to “celebrate our graduates safely”.
“We understand that this is disappointing; however, we are adding many new activities and celebrations to make this commencement academically meaningful, memorable, and uniquely USC,” the university wrote.
The commencement events, happening in May, will include tickets for students and their guests to access the campus, and the events, as well as people and bag screening, will be implemented.
In the aftermath of the protests, Alan, a USC senior who is due to graduate next month, told The Independent that the campus now feels “military-like”, with student IDs being checked at all entrances on Thursday.
Video from the protests showed dozens of helmeted officers arriving at campus and arguing with the gathered people about the removal of tents.
“It’s not an atmosphere of celebration. It’s an atmosphere of grief in a way. I think people were just really reconsidering what it means to graduate from USC,” Alan told The Independent.
“I’m a graduating senior. This is my graduating class. And it feels wrong to even come back to campus or to even celebrate this final week like this.”
Other students have said that the university’s decision to cancel the main ceremony was “truly heartbreaking” and “a mess that could have been avoided” by USC.
“The weeks leading up to this day was supposed to be exciting and fun but unfortunately it is now filled with dread. Us Jewish seniors graduating feel unwelcome and unprotected,” senior student Melina Feradouni told The Independent, adding that she stayed home on Wednesday “out of fear”.
Across the country, universities have reacted in differing ways to the spread of pro-Palestine protests, such as the California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, closing its campus on Thursday until at least the end of the weekend after people occupied buildings on campus and resisting arrest.
Hundreds of arrests have been carried out as a result of the demonstrations, including more than 100 people at Columbia amid protest encampments, which are demanding the school to divest their financial ties to Israel over the war in Gaza.
Among those arrested across the country, professors are also being detained, such as two Emory University professors in Georgia, as officers continue to try and extinguish the protests.
A crew member from CNN witnessed economics professor Caroline Fohlin and Noëlle McAfee, chair of the philosophy department, being detained by Atlanta police.
Footage also captured police appearing to use tasers on restrained students and shooting pepper balls at protesters at the same university campus.
Protests have sparked up in the US and across the world ever since the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people, which was followed by the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza, which has now killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.
