The Brief

The University of Southern California’s decision to cancel its valedictorian’s commencement speech has set off a campaign of external and internal pressure on the university to let Asna Tabassum speak as originally planned.

USC’s 2024 valedictorian, Tabassum, says she still plans to attend her school’s commencement ceremony in May, even though she will no longer be allowed to speak.

“I have not received any communication from (the) university about my attendance. I still plan on attending the graduation ceremony,” she told LAist. “I love USC, and I am truly honored and humbled to have been selected as the USC Class of 2024 Valedictorian.”

Being valedictorian, she said, was an honor for her and a “victory” for “hijabis, Muslims, South Asians, (and) first generation Americans.”

Asna Tabassum

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Courtesy Asna Tabassum

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On Monday, USC announced that it was canceling Tabassum’s speech due to unspecified safety concerns because of campus tensions related to the Israel-Hamas War. However, Los Angeles Police Officer Jeff Lee confirmed to LAist that they do not have a crime report open on the security threats.

LAist has not received a response to an inquiry about any additional security measures the university has taken given that Tabassum confirmed she plans to attend. But in a notice posted Friday, the university said that "given the highly publicized circumstances" surrounding our main-stage commencement program, all outside previously scheduled speakers and honorees would be honored at a later date. That would include keynote speaker Jon Chu, best known for directing the film Crazy Rich Asians.

Tabassum’s selection as valedictorian drew criticism from the group Trojans for Israel for touting what they called “anti-Zionist rhetoric." Tabassum has received backlash for a website she linked to on her Instagram profile that contains a list of books and documentaries about Palestinian history and politics. She also links to an external website, created by Palestinians, that “covers Palestinian history/politics and debunks common Zionist myths.”

But Tabassum said she's been overwhelmed by the support she's receiving.

“We’re sparking some important conversations about our values at a magnitude I never dreamed of,” she said. “We’re making lemonade out of lemons.”

On Thursday, hundreds of students and faculty members marched on campus in a peaceful protest, chanting “Let her speak!” An external petition started by the Council on American-Islamic Relations Greater LA office has garnered more than 40,000 signatures calling on USC to reinstate Tabassum’s speech.

Students and faculty protest USC's decision to cancel the valedictory address at commencement.

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Courtesy Alan Mittelstaedt

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Around 150 faculty members have also penned a letter to university President Carol Folt, Provost Andrew Guzman and the Board of Trustees saying the decision contradicts the university’s values of diversity, equity and inclusion and “stifles open communication.”

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion require the inclusion of a variety of points of view and experience,” the letter states. “The promotion of well-being includes the well-being of communities beyond our campus borders. Above all, this decision does not reflect our collective commitment to act with integrity.”

In a statement, the university said the decision "had nothing to do with the background or viewpoint of the valedictorian, but was instead based on a careful and holistic review of the situation from a safety and security standpoint.”

“Nothing can take precedence over the safety of our community,” the statement added.

Campus debate

The university’s unprecedented decision to cancel a valedictory speech, for the first time since its founding in 1880, comes at a time when college campuses have been roiled with debate because of the Israel-Hamas war. At Columbia University, law enforcement was called in to disband a pro-Palestinian protest and earlier this month, police in riot gear arrested 19 people at Pomona College.

Tabassum said she believes her experience is “an extension of the censorship that universities are doing of students across the nation.”

“On college campuses everywhere, we are seeing examples of students who are courageously exercising their first amendment rights to stand up for the human rights of those who are oppressed and silenced in Palestine,” she told LAist. “I never expected to join the ranks of those students, but am humbled to lend my voice to the fight for justice.”

Tabassum told LAist that her minor in resistance to genocide was inspired by the Shoah Foundation’s archives, which informed her viewpoint “on equality and humanization” and inspired her to become an interviewer for the Health and Human Rights Oral History Project housed at USC.

“Lessons from these experiences are central to my insistence upon human rights for all people, including Palestinians,” she said.

Faculty weighs in

Laurie Brand, a professor emerita who’s studied international relations and the Middle East, is also part of the USC Palestine Justice Faculty Group, comprised of roughly 25 interdisciplinary faculty members. The group released a statement calling the university’s decision “another example of USC’s egregious pattern of supporting anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim racism.”

Brand said the group felt compelled to weigh in on the university’s decision based on academic freedom and the backlash Tabassum has received for supporting Palestinian human rights.

“There's nothing in any of Asna’s statements that suggests that she's antisemitic at all,” Brand said. “She simply is a young woman who is concerned with universal values, and that's demonstrated in a number of statements that she's made.”

In the lead up to commencement, Brand said, various groups and faculty are looking to come together to try and lobby the university.

USC students and faculty protest the administration's decision to cancel the valedictory speech at commencement.

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Courtesy USC Muslim Student Union

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On Wednesday, Brent Blair, a USC School of Dramatic Arts professor, donned a Star of David necklace, a kippah and a prayer shawl as he stood in front of the campus’ Tommy Trojan statue with a sign that read, “Jewish Faculty In Support of Asna Tabassum. Let Her Speak.”

While Blair said he does not “prefer” the language in Tabassum’s social link, he wrote a letter to the provost about his concerns that the “free exchange of ideas” is being challenged and that the university’s decision “infantilizes her for us to assume that she cannot maintain a sense of decorum.”

He said he will continue his protests hoping for a change of heart by the university.

Prior precedent?

In another letter sent to President Folt and Provost Guzman, Donald Miller, a professor of religion at USC, wrote about the time he helped bring Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak on campus in 1986, when South Africa’s apartheid was being debated.

“More than 3,000 students gathered in front of the Doheny Library steps where a stage had been constructed,” he wrote. “Because there had been death threats against Tutu, the entire front of the stage was lined with LAPD officers and many more were on the perimeter of the large audience of students.”

When asked if a similar security arrangement can be made for the upcoming commencement ceremony, Lee from the LAPD told LAist he didn't know. But a crime report is needed, he said, to establish a potential victim and investigate.

By canceling Tabassum’s speech, Miller writes that the university has “created a situation that will invite protests, send a horrible message to our Muslim community, and tarnish the reputation of the university.”

Wider community pressure

Hasna El-Nounou, a programs manager at Muslim Student Association West, a nonprofit organization that supports 40 Muslim student associations in California, Arizona and Nevada, said the organization was in touch with Tabassum before it was announced that her speech had been canceled.

El-Nounou and her team provided emotional support to Tabassum and gave her guidance, while Muslim community members provided assistance in crafting her public statement. The group went on to mobilize students and others to voice their opposition to the university’s decision.

“It's a very difficult time for the Muslim community as a whole,” El-Nounou said, “but definitely a very tumultuous and emotionally rigorous time for college students in particular.”

Republican Sonja Shaw conceded the race for California Superintendent of Public Instruction to Democrat Richard Barrera late Wednesday evening.

“Last night voters made their choice. I would be lying if I said my heart wasn’t heavy,” Shaw said in a statement shared on social media. “As a mother and a protector of children, I feel deeply saddened for the kids. They are the ones who deserve so much better.”

In her social media post, which included a photo of Shaw locking hands with her husband and two daughters, Shaw said her kids had motivated her to run for state superintendent. Shaw won election to the Chino Valley Unified school board in 2022, fueled by support from conservative parents.

“The problem is that for decades, the same people have had their hands on our education system while our children have continued to fall behind,” Shaw said. “I believe we had an opportunity to change that.”

The office of California superintendent of public instruction is nonpartisan, with no party affiliation listed on the ballot. In past races, it was not unusual for two Democrats to advance to the November election. But this year, endorsements, campaign funding and campaigning broke largely along partisan lines.

Shaw, a Republican and board president of Chino Valley Unified, emerged as the top vote getter in a crowded June primary that featured several Democratic state lawmakers. But she contended in her statement that her race didn’t have the “money or machinery” that her opponent did in the November election.

Shaw trailed Barrera by nearly 15 percentage points, according to the latest election results Thursday morning. Shaw’s campaign raised about $595,000 compared to Barrera’s $812,000. However, the California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union and a heavy spender in state superintendent races, also spent $8.4 million to support Barrera, the board president of San Diego Unified.

That pales in comparison to the combined $50 million raised in the 2018 state superintendent race Tony Thurmond won against Marshall Tuck in 2018. The 2026 state superintendent race had the distinction of featuring two local school board members.

Shaw said she’s not sure what her next steps will be.

“I don’t know exactly what God has next, but I know He isn’t finished,” she said.

Shaw will not be returning to the Chino Valley Unified school board where she began her political career. Her husband, Chris Shaw, ran for her open seat and is trailing his challenger by 11 points, according to the San Bernardino County Register of Voters.

This story was originally published by EdSource.

The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills is set to officially open next month, but that hasn’t stopped some wildlife from already using it.

Cameras captured coyote footage twice — once last week and again on Thursday morning — making the mammal the first large animal species seen using the crossing.

“This is amazing — obviously, the wildlife are not waiting for our opening date,” said Beth Pratt, president of the Wildlife Crossing Fund. “The animals are already blessing this crossing and saying, ‘Yep, you got it right.’”

Construction of the expansive bridge began in 2022, aimed at giving wildlife safe passage between the Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills after years of research.

Pratt said it’s unclear whether the images of the coyote are of the same animal. The coyote in the most recent image from Thursday morning can be seen on the 101 structure holding a bone or a stick in its mouth.

“The coyote is validating that we got this designed right, and I think that there's something also about a coyote being first — kind of the L.A. mascot next to P-22,” Pratt said.

The National Park Service is installing more cameras along the crossing to document and study how animals use it. While images will be made publicly available, there will not be a livestream.

“We can't, for security reasons, because this is L.A., and if there's a mountain lion going across, somebody's gonna go try to pet it,” Pratt said.

Topline:

• How we got here: Roy held on to a strong lead over McKinney ever since polls closed and is currently ahead by more than twice as many votes. Roy will be a fresh face to the role after the incumbent city attorney, Hydee Feldstein Soto, was ousted in the June primary in a rare defeat of an elected city official. 

• What the candidates had to say: 
  
  • Roy said on social media Wednesday that election night was “a really good night for the people who believe that we should take care of one another, that we can stand up for our rights — even in what feels like an increasingly lawless world — and that we will achieve justice when we fight for it.”
  • McKinney posted on social media Thursday that he’s back in his old office at the Hall of Justice. “The run for City Attorney was an incredible journey, and I’m truly grateful for everyone who believed in me, supported me, and stood by my side,” McKinney wrote. "While I’m disappointed things didn’t turn out the way we hoped, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything." He acknowledged Roy in a social media video earlier this week, describing her as a “hard worker” who put together a strong coalition of support. McKinney added that he would be “rooting for her.”
  • Neither campaign immediately responded to LAist’s requests for additional comment.
• What’s at stake: The city attorney runs an office of more than 550 lawyers representing L.A. in all legal matters, including filing lawsuits and defending against them. Roy, backed by powerful progressives like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, has vowed to take on the Trump administration in court.
• Go deeper: Read more about the city attorney's role and what's on the table for Roy's first term.

Construction of the green metal fence around MacArthur Park will begin Monday, Nov. 16, with work scheduled to continue through fall 2027.

The city announced the start date Nov. 4, saying crews will install an 8-foot fence around the park’s perimeter. Nearby residents and businesses can expect some noise, dust and vibration during construction, although the city said mitigation measures will be in place.

Crews will work Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and the park will remain open while crews are working. 

The fence is the city’s latest attempt to tackle longstanding problems at MacArthur Park, including drug use, homelessness and crime.

The city first approved plans for the fence in October 2025, and the proposal has since drawn both support and criticism from residents and community groups.

Some say they hope the fence will make the park safer, while others question whether it will actually improve conditions there. Police and city officials say the fence will give them more control over the space and make it easier to enforce the law.

Ana Luz Vazquez, a street vendor near MacArthur Park, said her main concern about the fence is what will happen to the unhoused people who stay in the park throughout the day and whether the city plans to address that issue directly.

She is also concerned that construction during the day could affect her ability to work because of traffic, less parking availability and loud noise.

Vazquez said she would prefer construction to take place at night so it would have less of an impact on street vendors.

“If they’re working in the day then how are we supposed to come here and who is going to help us survive,” Vazquez said.

Construction will happen in two phases

Phase 1

• Alvarado St. from W. 6th St. to Wilshire Blvd.
• S. Park View St. from Wilshire Blvd. to W. 6th St.
• Wilshire Blvd. from Alvarado St. to S. Park View St.

Phase 2

• Alvarado St. from Wilshire Blvd. to W. 7th St.
• S. Park View St. from W. 7th St. to Wilshire Blvd.
• Wilshire Blvd. from S. Park View St. to Alvarado St.
• W. 7th St. from Alvarado St. to S. Park View St.

Existing trees will be protected and monitored during the work, according to the Department of Recreation and Parks. Traffic control measures will be in place during work hours, and crews will post temporary “No Parking” signs near active work areas in advance.

Services at the park are expected to remain the same throughout construction. The schedule could change because of weather or other unforeseen circumstances, according to the city.

The city has allocated $2.3 million for the project, but officials have not said whether that will cover the full cost.

After the fence is installed, the city plans a second phase focused on adding decorative elements. Officials have said residents will have an opportunity to provide input on the design.

Residents with questions or concerns about the project can contact Recreation and Parks at RAP.PublicInfo@lacity.org or 213-202-2700.

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