Heterodox at USC Newsletter #7
Perspectives on campus protests and activism.
Happy almost commencement! Today we bring you some updates on the campus protests and various responses to them.
The Pro-Palestine encampment on campus was cleared out (again) by LAPD in the early morning hours of May 5th. The university seems to now be signaling it will do its best to prevent a return of the encampment. Whether the protesters will be back once commencement festivities are over remains to be seen.
Folt and Guzman Censured
On May 8th, the Academic Senate voted to censure President Folt and Provost Guzman.
The resolution, approved 21-7 with six abstentions, also “endorses the immediate creation of a task force” that would produce a public report investigating those controversies and “associated administrative decisions and communication.”
Among the events listed were the banning of Professor John Strauss from campus, the cancellation of Asna Tabassum’s valedictory address and the main commencement ceremony, and the encampment protest that twice faced law enforcement shutdowns.
Heterodox at USC member Anna Krylov spoke with the L.A. Times about the situation:
"There are many things to criticize the president and provost for. But censure, I don't agree with it," said Anna Krylov, a professor of chemistry who is not a senator.
Krylov said her criticism of administrators is focused on her belief that they have not done enough to support Jewish students and combat antisemitism. It was wrong, she said, to censure Folt and Guzman "for the things they did right such as removing the camp and calling the police."
Age of Unreason
USC history and philosophy double major Chad Beauchamp shared his observations about the campus protests in City Journal:
I hadn’t even argued for or against his major premise—one that I avidly reject—that Israel is committing genocide. Yet the demonstrator was nonetheless incapable of rationally justifying his belief. Anecdotal evidence from protests on other campuses around the country suggests he is not alone in this. How did it come to be that so many are incapable of defending their passionately held beliefs and discerning any objective notion of moral right or wrong?
Free Speech For Me, Not For Thee (Round Two)
Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation, United Students Against Sweatshops Local 13 (SCALE) sent around a mass email to all USC faculty last week, requesting that they make finals accommodations for students. Of note, it stated:
We have heightened the urgency of our call for an end in war profiteering and investment in genocide, a complete academic boycott of the apartheid state of Israel, an end to to orwellian policing on campus and in the surrounding community, a protection of free speech on campus with full amnesty to all students, staff, and faculty disciplined, penalized, or fired for their pro-Palestine activism, an end to displacement of the residents of the South Central community we occupy, as well as an end to the silence on the genocide in Palestine.
It feels important to point out that, from October 7th onward, the university has hosted numerous Pro-Palestine marches, vigils, die-ins and educational events, with no police crackdown or penalties.
It seems reasonable that the university would draw the line at an entrenched, tent encampment occupied by a large number of people not affiliated with USC (arrest records from the first encampment clearing on April 24th found that only half were students, although some may have been affiliated with the university in other ways) just weeks ahead of the university’s biggest event of the year.
After all, free speech may be an American right, but reasonable time, place and manner restrictions are also part of that tradition.
Reasonableness may not be of much interest here, however. Back in November, SCALE widely circulated a selectively edited video of economics professor John Strauss engaging in free speech at a Pro-Palestine campus rally in November. SCALE encouraged people to report him to the university for expressing his views, with the rather obvious intent of getting him fired or, perhaps, merely “reeducated”.
Meanwhile, other students, faculty and USC community members feel that these protests disrupted their own rights on campus. An open letter to the USC administration with 1,500 signatures shares some of these concerns:
Trojans want the administration to take firm actions to restore peace and normalcy. We need the university to enforce its own rules to ensure everyone's safety and well-being, not sporadically but consistently. Trojans want a campus that supports everyone’s learning, free from distractions or fear. This is our shared home, and every Trojan deserves to study in peace and security.
We maybe the quieter voices of the USC community—those of us who study hard, respect our campus, and look forward to traditions like graduation. The fact that we aren't the ones making noise doesn't mean our needs and concerns are any less important.
Thank you for considering our perspective—a perspective aiming for a balanced and fair approach to campus life, where dialogue does not disrupt, but rather enriches, our educational journey.
Department of Open Letters
The protests stirred up considerable activism from USC faculty, including numerous open letters and a peaceful faculty protest march on the university park campus.
Some departments seem to be trying to bend rules which prohibit departments from posting political statements to USC websites. Many published open letters on department letterhead and disseminated them using USC owned mass mailing lists instead.
To be clear, faculty must retain full rights to sign petitions, level constructive critiques at the university and band together with fellow USC faculty to produce open letters. Indeed, our newsletter is one such form of group critique!
Problems arise, however, when official USC department websites, letterhead and mailing lists are used to disseminate these petitions and critiques, which not everyone in a department may agree to.
Group letters which imply department consensus by using official USC materials can produce uncomfortable situations for those who opt out. As Voices Against Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism at USC points out:
While individual faculty members should have the freedom to sign any statement they please—whether virtuous or abhorrent—a political statement made in the name of an entire department constitutes compelled speech that intimidates dissenters, suppresses their views, and—one can argue—create a hostile work environment.
A majority of faculty might sign onto a letter, but what about the few faculty who didn’t sign on? Did anyone consult office staff or students enrolled in that major? Would these signatories approve of other letters issued on their department letterhead in support of a cause for which they strenuously disagree?
We’d encourage these groups to form or join initiatives like our Substack, which bring together like-minded colleagues in ways that still signal independence from departments or centers.
Come on in, the waters fine!
You Reap What You Sow
Speaking of tenured activism, Tyler Austin Harper writes in The Atlantic about the hypocrisy of universities who have increasingly used their institution’s history of campus activism to entice students onto campus, only to be flabbergasted when students engage in, well, activism to get what they want:
Many universities at the center of the ongoing police crackdowns have long sought to portray themselves as bastions of activism and free thought. Cornell is one of many universities that champion their legacy of student activism when convenient, only to bring the hammer down on present-day activists when it’s not. The same colleges that appeal to students such as Wilson by promoting opportunities for engagement and activism are now suspending them. And they’re calling the cops.
Uplifting Campus News
International student graduates with 4 bachelor’s degrees from USC Dornsife
USC’s Caleb Williams selected as No. 1 overall pick in 2024 NFL draft
Women of Troy win fourth consecutive beach volleyball national championship
If you have suggestions for things you’d like us to cover, feedback on our newsletter, or want to get more involved with Heterodox at USC please contact us at heterodox.usc@gmail.com. Fight On!