Lurker > Doe

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/16/us/usc-valedictorian-commencement-speech-canceled/index.html

What was supposed to be a time of celebration for Asna Tabassum the University of Southern Californias 2024 valedictorian has turned to disappointment after the university denied her the chance to give a speech at commencement over security concerns.

Over the past several days, discussion relating to the selection of our valedictorian has taken on an alarming tenor, USC Provost Andrew Guzman said in an online campus-wide letter. 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 relating to security and disruption at commencement."

Tabassum a first-generation South Asian-American Muslim, according to a statement she released via the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles would have delivered her speech at the graduation ceremony on May 10.

I am both shocked by this decision and profoundly disappointed that the University is succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice, Tabassum said in the online statement. I am not surprised by those who attempt to propagate hatred. I am surprised that my own university my home for four years has abandoned me.

As tensions in the Middle East rage on, the deadly war in Gaza has yielded a dire humanitarian crisis while stoking angst across the world as supporters of Israel and Hamas advocate online and in the streets, many in support of a ceasefire.

The change to USCs commencement program only affects plans for a student speech, the universitys Associate Vice President for Strategic and Crisis Communications Lauren Bartlett told CNN.

Bartlett declined to say what security concerns drove the schools decision, saying, In the interest of safety and security, we dont disclose specific threats around the assessment.

For her part, Tabassum harbors serious doubts about whether USCs decision to revoke my invitation to speak is made solely on the basis of safety, she said in the online statement.

The doubts linger because I am not aware of any specific threats against me or the university, because my request for the details underlying the universitys threat assessment has been denied, and because I am not being provided any increased safety to be able to speak at commencement, Tabassum said.

When asked if Tabassum will still be permitted to participate in the graduation ceremony and what security measures were in place to secure her safety, Bartlett said she didnt have that information. A Chino Hills, California native, Tabassum studied biomedical engineering with a minor in resistance to genocide and an interest in global health care equity.

Instead of canceling Tabassums speech, the university should take more steps to secure a safe graduation environment, said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles.

Even though USC has maintained Asnas position as valedictorian, the cowardly decision to cancel her speech empowers voices of hate and censorship, violates USCs obligation to protect its students and sends a terrible signal to both Muslim students at USC and all students who dare to express support for Palestinian humanity, Ayloush said in an online statement.

Bartlett also did not have information about whether the school considered letting Tabassum share her speech before or after the graduation ceremony, she said.

To be clear: this decision has nothing to do with freedom of speech, said the provost, Guzman. There is no free-speech entitlement to speak at a commencement. The issue here is how best to maintain campus security and safety, period.

While this is disappointing, he noted, tradition must give way to safety.

What a profoundly disappointing thing for a university to do. I thought the California unis were supposed to be better than this? Like I cannot believe this is happening in 2024.

We recently had a thread revisiting that CE meme format where people would put a CEman quote on an inspirational background, but I never found the one I was really looking for. The quote had something to do with white people needing to be careful to avoid Hell or else when they'd go there they'd hear the "N word for white people". And for some reason that was the funniest shit I ever read

https://youtu.be/7-4no0aMa8k

It's on its own a great song and has lyrics fitting for the material ("Hope dangles on a string...") while matching the vibe of Spider-Man 2 and Peter's identity struggle so well.

I think this is one of the best movies about a superhero ever made but I don't know how total the impact would've been on me if not for this song. It's like all the power of the movie packaged into this track that you can tap back into.

Dat_Cracka_Jax posted...

That doesn't sound that odd to me

What I mean is, if the race has a record, it's weird to me for someone who can break it to run it but as someone keeping pace for a person who hired them to help them break the record instead. Unless I'm misunderstanding and the hired guys didn't run the full race, but the article makes it sound like they did.

Mnangat has told BBC Sport Africa that the trio ran as pacemakers.

The Kenyan said four runners had been contracted to help He break the Chinese half-marathon record of one hour two minutes 33 seconds, and that one of them did not finish the race.

So the story from the Kenyans is they were never supposed to be recognized as participants in the race and were there to help He keep pace and break a record, but that still sounds very odd.

I've never been to a Chipotle.

You will learn to pity him. He is stuck in the cycle of abuse

I kinda don't even feel safe talking about Israel anymore because of the new purge rule even though I've never been modded for it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/98a77f1b.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a3a49e1a.jpg

My piece is that channel proliferation is quite a balancing act on Discord. Based on seeing many discords die. I recommend starting slim and when one type of conversation overwhelms the General, it can get a dedicated channel. "Pre-planning" often ends up with a lot of dead channels, which isn't the end of the world since you can close them obviously, but I've seen it often contribute to "channel policing" cultures in such discords, which ultimately lowers engagement and retention.

What keeps discords alive is feeling like you can comfortably 'hop in'. Discord is very momentum based so when a channel doesn't see a lot of activity, people tend to feel less comfortable attempting to start a conversation in it. While GameFAQs has the topic system which acts like a declaration to initiate conversation, discord channels function more like group chat DMs. Discord does have the "threads" system but in my experience users don't take to it.

You guys are so mean. I'm just a little guy and you're so mean

What actually is LUElinks?

Does anybody have like, a full testimonial of what happened to Vegy? As far as I know, getting unbanned is unprecedented, much less getting conditions for your return.

Well, maybe this happened to I think Gavirulax back in the day? But the story I'm thinking of is that the user was continuously hacking the site and they tried to pacify them or something.

Blocking is probably the best feature of his administration besides perhaps allowing cursing, even if I don't use it often.

Wait, did Allen give us "Hide topic"? CE would be unusable without that.

Open

Really embarrassing to do that and see the batter get a clean hit. (Can you call a foul ball a clean hit?)

The people should seize JK Rowling's wealth and while we're at it let's just comb through Britain as a whole and return the looted artifacts from their museums to their rightful governments

One of the hardest lines ever aired on television.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/fd5f7c7e.jpg

Words that will live in infamy

nt

CEcluded in the best to tie back to secLUEded

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5ea9876a.jpg

To my knowledge, the closest format to ours is, uh, ResetERA.

Fandom kills everything it touches, looking to squeeze any dollar it can from community content.

Some people's political community seems to sort of match up with the phenomenon of 'cult hopping'.

She told Ozai that Zuko is the one who struck down the Avatar so that if/when it is learned that Aang is still alive, it is once again his shame.

Still Zuko's fault for being the kind of dude that literally recites "Azula always lies" to himself in his sleep and then still listens to her.

Also WTF at the fact Aang needs to shave his head and only revealing this information to us in the third season. Jump scare shit. Dude was born to be bald

As a Gen Z, the 3DS version is just as fun as any modern game.

BuIIyMaguire posted...

Another scorching hot take from Doe.

I missed the part where that's my problem.

My friends all watched the first episode and I could not bring myself to pay attention and I realized I just do not care for Bethesda Fallout, personally.

I mean it makes sense that such a grifter continued grifting. But really now. Doctor Oz? Everybody thinks they're Trump now.

Something like Gear 2 reducing lifespan isn't a plot hole. One Piece happens in the span of like 3 years...

Nobody else feels like I do ?

I was really mad when the site was brigaded to get Undertale to win but after growing up I realize it was the correct outcome

I think something's wrong with my brain's reward system because I almost get excited at the idea of warm spring and ending up with some bug bites to scratch

it's a mirage

The team should decide their uniform. This is outrageous

I'm just saying the status quo in the US believed by a supermajority of people (even if they don't realize it explicitly) is that fatness is a character flaw. Even fat people believe it from internalizing the culture. And it's also often considered acceptable to be rude about fat people

From personal experience I know being fat in the US does define you

pretty sure a land invasion of Iran is logistically infeasible

People should generally be as educated as possible

Market solutions are bad at educating a full population for a ton of reasons (even if they are great for people who can pay)

So the government should make sure everyone receives education

Gonna be really annoyed if the government gets us into a war with fucking Iran because of Israel blowing up an Iranian embassy in Damascus

MICHALECOLE posted...

What the fuck is ishowspeed? Were just calling people by their screen names now?

Yeah what happened to calling people by their real name like PewDiePie and Egoraptor?

You guys don't keep it covered for a minute if it says to? Doesn't that help it finish warming evenly?

ROBANN_88 posted...

is it not?

When I say "about", I mean concerned or preoccupied with, not whether it is the literal setting.

From the Roger ebert .com review

Whatever you expect from an Alex Garland movie, he always gives you something else."Civil War" is something else again. It premiered in the US hours before I published this and it's already divisive. I look forward to reading all of the arguments for and against, even though both early raves and pans seem to be operating under the reductive assumption that it's one of three things: (1) an alternative future history of a divided United States that's intended as a cautionary tale; (2) a technically proficient but empty-headed misery porn compendium that derives much of its power from images redolent of genocide and/or lynching, but ducks political specifics so as not to offend reactionaries; or (3) a visionary spectacular with ultra-violence that might or might not have something important to say but will definitely look and sound great on an expensive home entertainment system.

As it turns out, "Civil War" is mainly something else: a thought experiment about journalistic ethics, set in a future United States, yet reminiscent of classic movies about Western journalists covering the collapse of foreign countries, such as "The Year of Living Dangerously," "Salvador," "Under Fire," and "Welcome to Sarajevo."

Specifically, and most originally, "Civil War" is a portrait of the mentality of pure reporters, the types of people who are less interested in explaining what things "mean" (in the manner of an editorial writer or "pundit") than in getting the scoop before the competition, by any means necessary. Whether the scoop takes the form of a written story, a TV news segment, or a still photo that wins a Pulitzer, the quest for the scoop is an end unto itself, and it's bound up with the massive dopamine hit that that comes from putting oneself in harm's way. The kinds of obsessive war correspondents who rarely come back to their own countries don't care about the real-world impact of the political realities encoded within the epic violence they chronicle, or else compartmentalize it to stay focused.

In the past couple years it quickly became very obvious how fragile our internet and its living history is.

ROBANN_88 posted...

i don't understand the numbers

if majority was 58.6 in 1980, but in 2014 it's all 20.5 and 26.3, surely that means size went down by half?
am i reading the numbers wrong?

Check the legend at the top, 58.6 is percentage of A cups