USC Cancels Graduation

No throwing of mortarboards.  No tedious speeches.  No waiting for an eternity if your name starts with a “W.”  And no need to worry if the 17 Advil you took to deal with your crushing hangover while sitting in the hot sun wearing a black robe will keep you upright, at least until you can have champagne at lunch.

No, none of this at the University of Southern California this year because the main graduation hoop-de-doo has been cancelled.

In lieu of the ceremony, the school will be mailing parents “I spent $300,000 on my kid’s education and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” t-shirts.  Of course, that could just be just a rumor.

There will be other, smaller ceremonies as the university’s various “schools” hold their own events, but it’s just not the same thing.

USC – as it did with the cancellation of valedictorian Asna Tabassum’s speech a few days ago  – is citing “security concerns” as the reason for dropping the entire graduation event.  And – as it did with Tabassum’s speech – it’s not going into any detail at all as to what those concerns may be.

The announcement came as 93 kids were arrested during a pro-Hamas demonstration on campus – one assumes they are related.

Actually, it is clear that the small but extremely loud and extremely dumb kids who are chanting genocidal slogans around campus are the cause for the cancellation.

Too bad you spent so much time and effort and money getting your engineering degree, kid – your fellow students are angry about something they have literally no hope of doing anything about so no graduation for you.

Interestingly, USC has a history of, well, providing proper security for large events on campus – presidential visits, for example, like when the Obamas attended their daughter’s graduation last year.

In other words, the school could have gone ahead with the event but chose not to.

Certain graduations are pointless and irritating.  There is absolutely no need for a ceremony when leaving fifth grade, or driver’s ed, or getting yet another one of the interminable certificates you have to have to work in corporate America of late (thank you, human resources.)

But college – and high school – graduations are an actual important event in people’s lives.  The student gets to feel proud and relieved and the parents get to show the world that at least they did that part of raising their kid right.

The cancellation also shows the fecklessness of the USC administration and empowers the protestors there and at dozens of other schools across the country.

“Hey, we shut it down, man!!,” said a hypothetical protestor.  “We’re doing good, we’re on the right side of history, just like my parents (grandparents? Good lord I’m old) shut down Vietnam. We did it for civil rights and we made the world a better place.”

No, not at all.  You did not save one life, you did not change the course of the war, and, no matter what you think, you have not permanently eroded the Israel-United States alliance.

You just succeeded in irritating your fellow students and costing parents even more money.

Get over yourself.

Of course, it is USC so that may be asking a bit much.