USC’s commencement cancellations claim honorary speakers as well as valedictorian

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Sunday, April 21. I’m your host, Andrew J. Campa. Here’s what you need to know to start your weekend:

• USC commencement cancellations continue
• LAPD can’t recruit cadets fast enough
• Topanga Canyon could remain closed into the fall after massive landslide
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper

Speakers continue to be cut from USC’s graduation

In less than a week, USC has altered a commencement tradition dating back more than a century.

On Friday, the university called off the appearance of “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon M. Chu and other commencement honorees as the controversy grows over its decision to cancel a speech by Valedictorian Asna Tabassum over unspecified security concerns.

USC informed would-be graduation-goers that it made the decision “to release our outside speakers and honorees from attending this year’s ceremony” due to “the highly publicized circumstances surrounding our main-stage commencement program.”

USC had initially invited Chu, tennis legend Billie Jean King, National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson and National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt in March to receive honorary degrees.

King, a Cal State University Los Angeles product, is still keynote speaker at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism’s satellite ceremony.

Media storm over decision

USC did not cite security as the reason for the latest cancellations, as it had on Monday. That day, the university kick-started a media storm, with reporting from The Times as well as the BBC, Reuters, Fox News, the New York Times and others after it canceled its valedictorian from speaking during graduation, citing unnamed threats.

University officials acknowledged that the silencing of Tabassum marked the first time a valedictorian would not speak in a traditional sense onstage.

In a campuswide letter distributed Monday, USC Provost Andrew T. Guzman cited unnamed threats that he said had poured in since the university publicized Tabassum’s name and biography.

Guzman said attacks against the student for her pro-Palestinian views had reached an “alarming tenor” and “escalated to the point of creating substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement.”

The opposition to Tabassum appeared to stem mostly from a link on her Instagram profile to a website she did not create.

The site, Free Palestine Carrd, features a series of links on how to “learn about what’s happening in Palestine.” The links include statements that Zionism is a “racist settler-colonialist ideology” and that founders of Zionism thought “Palestinians needed to be ethnically cleansed from their homes.”

Guzman said that in the end, “tradition must give way to safety.”

The decision’s fallout

This wasn’t the first time speech regarding the war in the Gaza Strip has resulted in an on-campus controversy.

In November, USC professor John Strauss was placed on paid administrative leave and barred from campus after viral videos in which he apparently says: “Hamas are murderers. That’s all they are. Every one should be killed, and I hope they all are killed.”

Strauss later returned to teaching undergraduate students that semester, albeit virtually.

As for Tabassum, she said the decision to cancel her speech left her feeling “betrayed.” And dozens of student groups and an on-campus protest on Thursday have condemned the school’s decision.

This newspaper’s editorial board also disagreed with USC’s decision, writing that the message “this sends to graduating seniors is that when a threat to free speech arrives, it’s time to cave.” Readers were split over the decision, while outside experts offered potential fixes.

USC’s 141st annual commencement ceremony is set for May 10, with any updates sure to be reported here.

The week’s biggest stories

(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles city news

• The LAPD’s recruiting woes laid bare: Only 30 officers per class, analysis shows.
• The LAPD seeks public’s help identifying driver and victims in street takeover hit-and-run.
• Thieves steal $250,000 in lottery ticket Scratchers from 44 stores, authorities say.
• An L.A. councilmember seeks more money to help tenants in Chinatown apartment building.

More police, crime and courts

• Three Alameda police officers are charged with involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 death of Mario Gonzalez.
• Motorists delayed by a Golden Gate Bridge protest might get ‘restitution,’ San Francisco’s D.A. says.
• A woman found dead in a Sunland trash bin has been identified.
• ‘Help me, help me’: Metro bus driver’s stabbing revives fears about safety.
• A fire recruit who was fatally struck on a freeway had been in collision before exiting vehicle. CHP says.
• A major Supreme Court case could upend California’s homelessness policies.
• An L.A. teen’s death was caused by a fall down stairs, not a school fight, an autopsy report says.
• Police responded to an alarm around the time of a $30-million L.A. heist, but thieves weren’t detected.
• In a scramble to protect workers against heat, California officials exclude prisons from new rules.

Local and national news

• The man who set himself on fire outside Trump’s trial had reportedly spouted conspiracy theories.
• What’s behind those ‘Shame on you’ billboards in the Coachella Valley?
• Murrieta Valley school officials defy California, keeping policy to tell parents when children are transitioning genders.
• Calexico resoundingly ousts its first transgender mayor and a council ally.
• Poll: Biden support drops dramatically among young men.
• The Biden administration might ban TikTok. These Latinx small-business owners are worried.
• Ventura’s city attorney is fired amid allegations of indecent exposure at a Chick-fil-A.

Medical news

• A Harbor-UCLA doctor is fired after the county says he regularly gawked at patients’ genitalia.
• Solving the mystery of a human jawbone found in an Arizona boy’s rock collection.

Pets and wildlife

• The Mojave desert tortoise officially joins California’s endangered list.
• The salmon industry faces extinction — not because of drought, but politics and government policies.

Entertainment

• Ye is reportedly suspected of battering a man who allegedly grabbed wife Bianca Censori.
• Chicano Batman band members are not who you expect them to be.
• Taylor Swift turns heel, owning her chaos and messiness on ‘The Tortured Poets Department.’
• In Jane Smiley’s rock ’n’ roll novel, does good sense make good fiction?

More big stories

• There are plenty of ‘ifs’ that matter in the Lakers-Nuggets playoff series.
• Significantly tiny in size, a Cupertino home is selling for big bucks: $1.7 million.
• A 420 celebration canceled at San Francisco’s Hippie Hill? Not if this psychedelic church can hash out plan.
• ‘Sesame Street’ writers reach a tentative contract deal, averting strike.
• Tesla recalls nearly 4,000 Cybertrucks due to faulty accelerator pedal.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

Column One

Column One is The Times’ home for narrative and long-form journalism. Here’s a great piece from this week:

(Calif. Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

Arrested in Mexico, Jose Luis Saenz sat on the Alaska Airlines flight in handcuffs, escorted by FBI agents to a city that had changed profoundly in his absence. By the time he stood trial in 2022, the jury was transported to places that no longer existed. Housing projects just east of the L.A. River where Saenz once lived — and allegedly killed — had been torn down. Townhouses, warehouses and a light-rail station took their place. The gangs that detectives said ruled over the projects, frightening families into returning home before sundown, had dwindled in size and influence, but the legend of Smiley, Saenz’s nickname, endured.

More great reads

• As ERs refuse to treat pregnant patients, one woman is left to miscarry in a lobby restroom.
• A celebrated L.A. astrology influencer’s stunning fall from ‘healer’ to solar eclipse killer.
• Your next new hangout: Crunchy snacks, sake drinks and a buzzing scene at this Virgil Village izakaya.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your weekend

(Patrick Hruby)

Going out

• 📚 Explore this year’s indoor and outdoor events at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, beginning at 10 am. or watch our live stream at latimes.com
• ⚾ Baseball season is back. Here are some recommendations on where to eat and drink near Dodger Stadium before or after a game.
• 🚴 The streets near Venice Beach are closing for the 5.75-mile CicLAvia biking and walking event, starting at 9 a.m.
• 🎭 Enjoy puppet shows and games at the 10th Annual Bob Baker Day at the Los Angeles State Historic Park, starting at 10 a.m.

Staying in

• 🐙 National Geographic is debuting its new series “Secrets of the Octopus,” featuring the aliens living on earth.
• ☘️ Comedian Conan O’Brien is debuting his new travel series “Conan O’Brien Must Go” on Max this weekend.
• 🧑‍🍳 Happy National Chocolate-Covered Cashews Day. Here’s a tasty recipe for the treat.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

(Key Xin)

I am not (or was not?) one to believe in love at first sight but I remember the large wood panel door swinging open that first night and seeing Kirk for the first time. I love meeting new people but had never had a connection like the one I have with him before. He was attentive, honest and intellectual. He had previously lived in the house and moved out to live with a girlfriend in her apartment. After they broke up, he moved back into this crazy house.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Carlos Lozano, news editor

Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.