We are heading toward the end of the school year when graduates and their proud families gather to see diplomas received and hear wisdom shared by commencement speakers.
This tradition will not happen at the University of Southern California (USC) this year. The administration has canceled the May graduation ceremony because of waves of negative publicity and protests surrounding the earlier cancelation of the commencement speech by the class valedictorian, who is Muslim, and is perceived to take a side in the Israel and Hamas conflict. You might think, why do I care about this? USC, in Los Angeles, is far away— a 36-hour car ride from Traverse City. However, in our big tent of a country, when we share common experiences, we are a more united States.
So, please pity those USC graduates. Remember 2020? This group is the high school class of 2020. When virtually no one had an in-person graduation, these same kids are getting burned again when denied a right of passage that helps with closure.
It is unthinkable that a university would cancel this critical tradition. These 2020 kids don’t need cancellations. They need tradition and continuity. The USC school administration says, “We understand that this is disappointing; however, we are adding many new activities and celebrations to make this commencement academically meaningful.” This statement is shorthand, for they don’t want feedback on their decisions about the growing problem of finding the right words to help bridge people’s positions on the conflict in the Middle East.
Over time, the erosion of traditions will result in no more traditions. School administrators barring students and parents from gathering for the main graduation ceremony has an awful effect. On their website, USC states, “We Are Global. And we magnify your worldview and craft solutions to today’s most complex global problems.” Um, apparently not! Since they can’t seem to support an open hearing of complex global problems on their own campus.
The decision to cancel graduation is a dereliction of administrative duty. What happened to the concept of institutional neutrality? The administration’s public positions, such as the one above, feel false and completely miss the mark in modeling for students on how to help deal with conflict, not to mention for 2024 grads to have closure on their college years.
We had two 2020 graduates in our family—a high school and a college graduate—and let me tell you, even though most of us have moved on, the kids of 2020 were cheated by missing out on cherished activities, and it is tough for young people to approximate closure when you haven’t had much.
So, let’s help these 2020 kids by expecting more, not less, of ourselves and our college administrators. Let’s support our graduates by preparing them to hear many diverse opinions, not fewer. We do this to support the grand traditions of our United States, including free speech.
