USC cancels speech by Muslim valedictorian, students protest

College students have long been a bastion of civil protest in the United States, and have enjoyed various degrees of freedom to demonstrate their causes on campuses, despite a history of occasional violence. U.S. students demonstrating against Israel’s operation in Gaza have been facing unusual crackdowns from some of the most well known universities in the United States including New York University, Brown, and MIT. On Thursday, students at the University of Southern California (USC) participated in a silent march to support this year’s valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, who is a Muslim student. Tabassum’s valedictorian speech was cancelled by the university over safety concerns surrounding passions around the conflict in Palestine.