USC Cancels Traditional Graduation Ceremony From Fear Of Pro-Hamas Protests
As anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protests continue to proliferate on elite college campuses, schools across the country are handling it differently. In the sane state of Florida, for example, students and authorities at Florida State University have shown there's little tolerance for pro-terrorism students.
READ: Hero FSU Student Shows How To Deal With Pro-Hamas Nonsense On Campus
But unsurprisingly, elite schools in California have an entirely different approach. One that took the most absurd, embarrassing turn possible in an announcement on Thursday afternoon.
USC released a statement informing students, families and faculty in response to the threat of pro-Hamas demonstrations and the, often, ensuing harassment and unsafe atmosphere for Jewish students, they were effectively canceling their usual, 65,000 person graduation ceremony.
Even though the commencement celebrations weren't scheduled until May 8-11, the school said that "new safety measures" would restrict the main stage ceremony.
"With the new safety measures in place this year, the time needed to process the large number of guests coming to campus will increase substantially. As a result, 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 and during a short window from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m."
The anti-Israel, pro-mask extremists win again.
![anti-israel pro-hamas protests usc commencement](http://images.outkick.com/static.outkick.com/www.outkick.com/content/uploads/2024/04/668/376/USATSI_23103834_168401602_lowres-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Apr 24, 2024; Los Angeles, Calif., USA; Several hundred people protest the ongoing war in Gaza on the University of Southern California Campus. Protestors setup tents and signs iin the early morning hours but campus security later cleared the gathering in Alumni Park. USC has been embroiled in controversy after canceling a pro-Palestinian valedictorian’s commencement speech. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY
USC's Embarrassing Cowardice On Graduation Ceremonies
The class of 2024, who entered school in 2020 when elite institutions like USC gave in to fear and peer pressure on COVID, will now be denied the traditional graduation ceremony and commencement because anti-Israel demonstrators weaponize their beliefs to intimidate others.
And instead of stepping up security measures to limit demonstrations, encampments or protests at commencement, they're canceling the large ceremony all together. It's embarrassing and all too predictable.
The encampments and organized harassment seen on college campuses are tolerated by administrations and even encouraged by extremist faculty members.
The obsessive promotion of anti-reality rhetoric on "oppressor-oppressed" or "anti-colonialism" ideology, no matter how inaccurate and anti-reality it may be, has rapidly taken over college campuses. And it's exacerbated by the weakness on display from administrators, politicians and university presidents conflating legitimate criticism of a country's policies with targeted harassment.
USC could have handled this properly; instead the school chose the easy way out. Now extremist students know how easily they can disrupt normal campus operations whenever they want. And disrupt they will.