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Alex Kent

The University of Southern California canceled its main commencement ceremony and introduced a host of security measures for those visiting its campus for the celebratory weekend in early May, a sign that the student-led pro-Palestinian protests roiling college campuses are starting to disrupt graduation plans.

USC will still hold school-specific commencement ceremonies, where students will receive their diplomas. But the university will not hold its May 10 main-stage ceremony that usually hosts around 65,000 students and community members, the university <a href="https://commencement.usc.edu/" target=_blank>announced</a> Thursday. USC will also require tickets to enter campus from May 8 to 11, screen people before events and allow only clear bags.

As they have at a growing number of other colleges, tumultuous scenes swept USC’s Los Angeles campus Wednesday, when officers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/04/25/university-protests-gaza-arrests-emerson-usc/" target=_blank>arrested</a> 93 people while breaking up a pro-Palestinian demonstration. Students who were protesting the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/israel-hamas-war/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Israel-Gaza war</a> had set up an encampment on the lawn at the center of campus where the school’s main graduation ceremony was set to take place, the Los Angeles Times <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-24/usc-pro-palestinian-encampment" target=_blank>reported</a>.

USC’s cancellation comes as other colleges across the country mull their own plans for the end of the academic year, weeks before many are set to welcome thousands of students, their families and faculty for graduation ceremonies. As they prepare, the specter of disruption looms as student-led protests have been met with police crackdowns, arrests and evictions of students from campus housing. USC and other schools have faced swift backlash over attempts to defuse controversy by limiting student commencement speeches or announcing designated protest zones during graduation ceremonies.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik said in a<a href="https://president.columbia.edu/news/morningside-campus-update" target=_blank> statement</a> Tuesday that she hoped the disruptions from the protests would not interfere with her school’s May 15 commencement.

“I am deeply sensitive to the fact that graduating seniors spent their first year attending Columbia remotely,” Shafik wrote, referencing the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">coronavirus</a> pandemic shutdowns. “We all very much want these students to celebrate their well-deserved graduation with family and friends.”

A Columbia spokesperson said in an email to The Washington Post that the school is monitoring protests on its New York campus but declined to confirm any changes to commencement plans.

Tensions had loomed over USC’s graduation before the protests and arrests. The university announced last week that it would not allow this year’s valedictorian speak at commencement, citing vague concerns over security. Valedictorian Asna Tabassum, who is Muslim, had shared pro-Palestinian views; university officials said news of her selection as graduation speaker had drawn responses that had “taken on an alarming tenor,” but did not specify any threats. After backlash at the decision, the school canceled a keynote commencement speech by film director Jon M. Chu, an alumnus of the school.

On Tuesday, eight law students at the City University of New York <a href="https://muslimadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-04-23-Hammad-v.-Thompson-Compl-ECF-1.pdf" target="_blank">sued</a> school administrators on First Amendment grounds over a September 2023 decision to end the long-standing practice of having a student-elected peer speak at graduation.

Eric Horowitz, a 26-year-old third-year law student and a plaintiff in the suit, told The Post that students being able to select a peer speaker is especially important in the “seventh month of a genocide,” an accusation Israel has denied after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, where more than 34,000 people have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. A case brought before the International Court of Justice by South Africa alleges that Israel is violating international law by committing and failing to prevent genocidal acts. The court has ordered Israel to do more to prevent the deaths of civilians.

Horowitz, who serves as a board member on the law school’s Jewish Law Students Association, said university officials ended the practice of allowing student-selected speakers after two criticized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. That led some to <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/cuny-commencement-address-sparks-firestorm-over-comments-on-israel-fascist-nypd/4387264/" target=_blank>denounce the speeches</a> as antisemitic, accusations Horowitz denies.

“We think it’s more important than ever … to have our voices heard in solidarity with the people of Palestine,” he said.

CUNY Law School officials did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment from The Post.

University of Michigan officials this month announced on the school’s website that they would set up an area outside the commencement venue that would be designated for protests. That came after demonstrators “significantly disrupted” the annual Honors Convocation, which university President Santa Ono described as an unacceptable “intrusion on one of the university’s most important academic traditions.”

“We all must understand that, while protest is valued and protected, disruptions are not,” Ono said in <a href="https://record.umich.edu/articles/u-m-requests-feedback-on-proposed-disruptive-activity-policy/" target=_blank>a statement</a>. “One group’s right to protest does not supersede the right of others to participate in a joyous event.”

The incident led officials to propose a “Disruptive Activity Policy,” under which students would be subject to suspension or expulsion if found in violation. The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan<a href="https://www.aclumich.org/en/press-releases/aclu-responds-university-michigans-proposed-disruptive-activity-policy" target=_blank> called </a>the policy “vague and overbroad” and said it risked “chilling free speech expression on campus.”

Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League wrote <a href="https://notoleranceforantisemitism.adl.org/resources/letter/open-letter-college-and-university-presidents-disruptions-commencement-ceremonies" target=_blank>an open letter</a> to college and university presidents urging them “to take clear, decisive action now to ensure that graduation ceremonies, events, and functions run smoothly, and that all students and their families feel safe, welcomed and celebrated.”

In the letter, ADL President Jonathan Greenblatt suggested officials strengthen policies about disrupting school events, then communicate to students the rules and consequences for violating them.

“Graduation is a time of joy and celebration,” Greenblatt wrote. “As leaders in the Jewish community, we ask that you take your role seriously in making sure that Jewish students — and all students — are not robbed of a positive, memorable life cycle event.”

<i>Susan Svrluga contributed to this report.</i>

Valparaiso University, BA

Kim Bellware covers national and breaking news for The Washington Post. 

Kim Bellware

Livingston Award, finalist, 2018

University of California, Berkeley, BA in English

Jonathan Edwards is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. Before joining The Post, he covered public safety for The Virginian-Pilot and Lincoln Journal Star.

Jonathan Edwards

Stanford University, BA in History and MA in Communications

Daniel Wu is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. He joined The Post as an intern on the Metro desk in 2022 and previously worked for the Seattle Times and the San Jose Mercury News.

Daniel Wu

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Colleges brace for more protests as graduation season approaches

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