As USC faculty members, staff, alumni, students, and parents committed to academic excellence and freedom of speech, we are alarmed by the Office of the Provost’s decision to cancel valedictorian Asna Tabassum’s commencement speech. Citing unspecified security concerns along with pressures from “many voices outside of USC,” the Provost announced the cancellation by insisting that “tradition must give way to safety.” The letter offered no alternatives such as altering the place, timing, or format of the speech, instead canceling it altogether while claiming that “this has nothing to do with free speech.”

This has everything to do with free speech. We are shocked to see our university abandon its commitment to a diversity of viewpoints in response to a blatant pressure campaign from both within and outside of USC. The failure to invest in alternative measures to protect campus safety casts doubt on the university’s rationale and opens USC up to legal liability, national embarrassment, and reputational damage.  

At recent commencement ceremonies, USC has hosted presidents, monarchs, and other high-profile figures with complex security needs, all without issue. Ms. Tabassum states that in a private meeting with USC leadership, she was told that while the campus has the resources to invest in safety measures for her speech, this would not be what USC wants to “present as an image.”  It is starkly clear that the decision to cancel the speech is a capitulation to a campaign of slander and anti-Muslim racism that has harassed and defamed Tabassum from the moment she was selected as valedictorian. The letter’s references to flaws in the valedictorian selection process further pander to those who seek to silence students who speak in support of Palestinian human rights.

In justifying the administration’s decision, Provost Guzman invoked USC’s Unifying Values. Asna Tabassum, a brilliant and exceptionally accomplished student whose statement on this matter can be read here, represents the very best of these values: excellence, integrity, open communication. If USC felt that Ms. Tabassum deviated from these values, they would strip her of her valedictorian title, which is what outside campaigners asked them to do. Instead, our university has become a national symbol of cynicism and hypocrisy–celebrating the achievements of a first-generation South Asian-American Muslim student while abandoning her in the face of controversy.

USC must live up to its own stated values, reverse this outrageous decision, and reinstate Tabassum as commencement speaker with appropriate measures to ensure her and everyone’s safety. It must, in Ms. Tabassum’s words “respond to ideological discomfort with dialogue and learning, not bigotry and censorship.” Any delay in this decision will only cause further embarrassment and polarization at our university.