something to say about that. friday, the university compounded. its initial error in my view of canceling one commencement speaker by now canceling all of them and in doing so, they harmed or rich tradition of colleges hosting speakers with a variety of the controversy began when after awarding a graduation day speech to the valedictorian, asna tabassum the university then canceled that speech citing unspecified security concerns. tabassum, who studied biomedical engineering with an interest in global health care, equity, had posted a link on instagram to a pro-palestinian website criticizing israel the link contain content that some pro-israel groups considered to be anti-semitic those groups and launched a campaign against her in canceling her appearance usc wrote in a release, the intensity of feelings fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the middle east has grown to include many voices outside of usc and has escalated to the point of creating substantial risks