USC Senior and Mother Criticize Cancellation of Commencement Ceremony Amid Safety Concerns and Blast University’s Decision-Making Process
A senior at the University of Southern California (USC) expressed her disappointment in an interview regarding the cancellation of their graduation ceremony due to safety concerns. Melina Feradouni, who is set to graduate this year from USC, said that she was “genuinely devastated” when she received a notification email from the university’s provost canceling the commencement event.
Feradouni’s mother, Ramona Gamzeltova, also criticized Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for her statement regarding the cancellation of graduation events at USC. While Bass explained that only the “main graduation” was called off but other celebratory occasions still continued on individual school levels, Gamzeltova argued that it wasn’t enough to replace the traditional ceremony.
Feradouni further shared her friend’s experience of being attacked during student protests over Israel-Hamas war in recent weeks. She revealed that when her injured friend called 911 for help, they were informed by authorities that they wouldn’t be able to come and assist due to safety concerns.
Gamzeltova also criticized USC’s decision regarding the selection of their valedictorian speaker earlier this month after facing backlash over Muslim biomedical engineering student Asna Tabassum being barred from speaking at commencement because of her critics accusing her of promoting anti-Israel sentiment. While Tabasamm faced these criticisms based on claims found online, Gamzeltova argued that USC didn’t do enough research before picking a different speaker to represent the school over safety concerns after blaming such concerns as a primary cause for cancellation amid the Israel -Hamas conflict crisis that rocked many universities.
Gamzeltova also pointed out that the chosen replacement had openly displayed hateful content on their social media pages, and she found it “thoughtless” of USC to pick them instead without doing proper due diligence regarding such claims online beforehand. Instead of acknowledging its mistake in this regard, Gamzeltova argued that USC chose to blame safety issues for the decision’s cancellation rather than addressing any potential errors made by their administration during selection processes.
Furthermore, Feradouni and her mother questioned whether there was indeed a real threat on campus as claimed by authorities since they had not seen evidence of such claims when considering current events taking place amid ongoing Israel-Hamas conflicts around the USC community in recent weeks.
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