Graduating seniors blame USC for ruining end of college with ‘military’ crackdown on pro-Palestine campus protests

Senior students in Los Angeles say they are now “reconsidering what it means to graduate from USC” after being “violated” by heavy-handed crackdowns against on-campus protests over the Israel-Gaza war this week.

With just two weeks to go before their graduation ceremony on 10 May, some said the celebratory atmosphere had vanished and been replaced with one of “almost grief”. Others accused the institution of creating an environment of “us versus them” amongst Jewish and Muslim students.

On Wednesday, like many universities across the country, USC – where tuition can cost up to $95,000 annually – saw demonstrations on campus descend into violence, with armed police arriving to disperse students with rubber bullets and riot gear. Similar shocking scenes played out in states including Georgia, where police used tasers on restrained students and shot pepperballs at demonstrators at Emory University.

The widespread unrest follows arrests of students at Columbia University in New York during weeks-long protests. More than 100 people were arrested at Columbia alone in connection to the protest encampments which are asking the school to divest financial ties to Israel over the war in Gaza. Protests in unversities in other states, including USC and the University of Texas in Austin, have espoused similar sentiments.

However, less than 24 hours after Wednesday’s demonstrations there were all-but no signs of protest activity on the Californian campus at all. The only indications that action had taken place were chalk messages reading “USC, divest from death,” and “no more money for USC’s crimes”.

Alan, a USC senior and due to graduate next month, said that in the aftermath of the protests the campus had felt “military-like”.