Unlike most college valedictorians, Asna Tabassum may never know what it’s like to stand before a sea of her peers and deliver a commencement speech. Despite the fact that she’s earned her opportunity to address USC’s class of 2024 based on her past four years of academic excellence, she may not reap the benefits of what she so deeply deserves all because of a singular, personal, political belief she holds.
Tabassum, a first-generation South Asian-American student and biomedical engineering major, is by no means a radical political activist. She’s a student from Chino Hills who engages with her community through researching medical and analytical devices. She’s a daughter who identifies with Muslim faith just as her parents and grandparents before her. She’s a girl who has an Instagram Highlights reel of pro-Palestinian content on her private social media page to express her beliefs about an ongoing global conflict. None of this qualifies her as the extremist, safety-threatening individual whose presence would endanger an audience.
When the university officially announced that Tabassum would not be allowed to give a valedictorian speech because this could pose a “substantial” safety risk, it’s mine and many others’ assumption that they took one singular part of her identity — her stance on the polarizing Israel-Palestine conflict — and reduced her entire identity to it. While the university alleged that this decision was made independent of Tabassum’s political beliefs, they failed to offer any additional explanation for their choice. Rather than viewing her holistically as a person who has a life beyond her view of a singular political issue, they labeled her opinion as controversial and dangerous — so much so that it was necessary for her voice to be silenced.
After backlash towards USC administration from USC students, faculty, and people across the nation, USC subsequently canceled the main graduation for all students graduating in the spring of 2024, allowing the controversy to take precedence over an entire class of students’ achievements. In failing to comment on their choice of a valedictorian, USC allowed the reputation of a student whom they’d previously determined to be an outstanding member of the Trojan community both socially and academically to become irreversibly marred by false statements on the internet. They failed to comment on posts calling her an “anti-Semite,” they failed to protect her from accusations that she spewed hate speech. Instead, they barred her from speaking, implicitly agreeing with all the allegations that Tabassum is a hateful, malicious person.
As a university that aims to educate and protect its students, USC is failing to do either by silencing Tabassum and failing to adequately explain why. All they’ve done is set a precedent for other students that their personal beliefs, ones that do not denote malice, are grounds for punishment.
The decision also fails to reflect what the USC community believes. USC professor and cofounder of the resistance to genocide minor Wolf Gruner calls USC administration’s actions “authoritarian.” USC Annenberg professor Mike Ananny says USC is “breaking students’ trust.” Students of The Daily Trojan have come forth with a staff editorial urging Tabassum to be reinstated as their speaker.
Silencing Tabassum is against everything USC publicly stands for. Tabassum will be graduating with a minor in resistance in genocide, a minor which is, ironically, exclusive to USC. Despite awarding Tabassum with a degree, USC punishes her for utilizing knowledge she gained from it, showing how the university’s values directly contradict the very courses they teach.
Tabassum, regardless of her political opinions, has earned her right to speak. Her beliefs on global politics are not why she was chosen to be a valedictorian, and her opinions are no basis for her honor to be stripped away.
df • Jun 5, 2024 at 1:38 am
Totally agree with the author. I am very disappointed with USC for blocking freedom of speech of their own top student.