As hundreds of households poured into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the College of Southern California’s main-stage graduation on Thursday night time, the scene had the texture of the standard collegiate occasion held there: a soccer recreation.
“Churros! Water!” distributors known as out as they picked their well beyond seated company, a few of them clutching pom-poms. Then the USC struggle music started to play as night time fell — and the Olympic Torch towering over the Coliseum ignited to cheers.
The spectacle supplied a rah-rah turning-of-the-page on final 12 months’s commencement controversy at USC.
In Could 2024, USC was extensively criticized for its dealing with of graduation. Amid the turbulence of campus protests over Israel’s conflict in Gaza, President Carol Folt canceled the primary ceremony over security issues, together with the speech of valedictorian Asna Tabassum, who had expressed pro-Palestinian views.
USC graduates stroll onto the sector through the 2025 graduation ceremony on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Because the four-day commencement ceremonies ramped up Thursday night time for the Class of 2025, USC unveiled main modifications to a long-held custom. Arguably the most important adjustment: abandoning longtime on-campus graduation venue Alumni Park — and its stately red-brick buildings and mature greenery — for the cavernous Coliseum.
USC additionally did away with a long-held observe, saying in February that there could be no valedictorian — and no accompanying speech. As a substitute of choosing a graduating senior primarily based primarily on educational grades, the coed speaker, Meghan Anand, was chosen from amongst candidates with grade-point averages of three.5 and above who submitted celebratory essays about their class.
But, for a college that steeps itself in its Trojan traditions, graduation had already been pressured to bend with the instances.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 gathering was relocated to the Coliseum as a result of the venue’s measurement allowed for a sequence of socially distanced occasions. Final 12 months, after the main-stage graduation was canceled, the college scrambled to host a “Trojan Household Graduate Celebration” on the Coliseum. It featured a drone present, fireworks and free hats from rapper Travis Scott’s attire firm. Emotions had been combined.
Forward of Thursday’s occasion — the centerpiece of a days-long commencement celebration that started Wednesday, concludes Saturday and contains greater than 20 celebrations on and close to campus — The Instances interviewed 5 graduating seniors about graduation.
USC graduates watch a drone present on the conclusion of the 2025 graduation ceremony on the Coliseum.
Some mentioned they’d have most well-liked to have the ceremony on campus, however the prospect of a nighttime celebration that would come with one other elaborate drone present and large fireworks show nonetheless appealed.
Senior Michael Younger, 21, mentioned he was “excited for that drone present” and knew from soccer video games the Coliseum would offer a “celebratory environment,” however he added he would miss the vibes of Alumni Memorial Park.
“If we had it there, it might simply really feel nostalgic,” he mentioned. “As a result of, , we stroll by way of that predominant street of campus on a regular basis, proper? We go into that library typically, proper? We wish to graduate on the precise steps that we took to graduate.”
A number of college students additionally criticized the administration’s determination to not title a valedictorian — or let that particular person communicate. Senior Nicole Concepcion mentioned the choice was “simply one other approach for USC to actually filter out what they wish to present everybody.”
“They’re actually, actually attempting to regulate it this 12 months, which rubbed me the unsuitable approach,” she mentioned.
Family and friends of USC graduates cheer through the 2025 graduation ceremony.
But others identified that the pandemic had thwarted their highschool’s in-person graduations. They had been merely glad to attend any type of gathering recognizing their achievements. “Our highschool commencement ceremonies had been impacted by COVID, so I’m excited that we get a grand occasion,” mentioned senior Jennie Duong, 22.
In a press release, USC mentioned the graduation was moved to the campus-adjacent stadium this 12 months partly as a result of it had gotten suggestions from graduates who went to final 12 months’s celebration “and liked the drone present and fireworks.” It was additionally moved to the Coliseum as a result of the occasion “has outgrown all venues on our campus.” The college mentioned it anticipated 50,000 company Thursday night time; attendance figures weren’t instantly obtainable.
As for the choice to forgo naming a valedictorian, the college has famous that different universities have additionally retired the valedictorian title, and that it wished to “have fun the accomplishments of a wider vary of our graduating college students who’ve labored extremely laborious all through their educational profession.”
The occasion on the Coliseum represented one thing of a do-over for USC — not less than in a method. “Depraved” director Jon M. Chu, a graduate of the USC Faculty of Cinematic Arts, delivered a speech Thursday night time after his deliberate 2024 graduation tackle was known as off by the college even earlier than the Alumni Park ceremony was canceled amid the swirling controversies.
Filmmaker Jon Chu throws up the “struggle on” signal after being introduced with an honorary doctorate through the USC graduation ceremony.
“Your job shouldn’t be merely to inherit a world however to reimagine it and set the inspiration for who we’re shifting ahead,” Chu informed the graduates. “As a result of we’re dwelling in a second when these previous tales of who we’re and what we stand for are breaking down.”
The pageantry and the custom
The principle-stage campus graduation gatherings at Alumni Park, which started about 75 years in the past, weren’t brief on pageantry and old-world custom going again many years.
The occasion would usually start with a processional that noticed college students stream out of Bovard Administration Constructing carrying heraldic flags for the college’s numerous educational models, adopted by deans and different senior college leaders in educational robes and colourful hoods as “Pomp and Circumstance” performed.
“It [was] very conventional,” mentioned Annette Ricchiazzi, who labored for USC in occasions through the 2000s and helped produce graduation occasions. It supplied “the sense of what of a commencement ceremony must be.”
On the Coliseum on Thursday, a few of that custom was on show. There have been, for instance, college students bearing flags. And there was a processional of dignitaries.
However there have been components not usually seen at graduation — although they could have been acquainted to any fan of the USC soccer crew, which performs on the Coliseum. Like these meals distributors.
Ricchiazzi, a USC alumna whose two daughters additionally graduated from the college, decried modifications that broke with custom. “Graduation shouldn’t be a soccer recreation — and it shouldn’t be,” she mentioned.
USC graduates put together to stroll onto the sector for the 2025 graduation ceremony on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
College students and alumni, Ricchiazzi amongst them, mentioned they believed the choice to carry the occasion on the Coliseum stemmed partly from the truth that the venue, which is provided with metallic detectors, presents a excessive stage of safety. On Thursday, company had been solely allowed to convey clear luggage into the stadium, a coverage deployed for different occasions there.
Senior Lawrence Sung, 22, mentioned he bristles on the safety gates USC put in place alongside its campus’ perimeter for the begin of the varsity 12 months, however within the case of graduation, he perceive the wants for tight restrictions. “For a giant occasion like this — for commencement — I do see the worth in that,” he mentioned.
Requested whether or not safety issues performed a job within the determination to maneuver graduation to the Coliseum, USC referred The Instances to a press release that mentioned partly the occasion was held there as a result of the venue’s capability suited its wants. The college mentioned it might not disclose particulars of its safety plans.
Lloyd Greif, a outstanding alumnus of the USC Marshall Faculty of Enterprise, mentioned that in 2021 — the 12 months of the socially distanced graduation on the Coliseum — two of his youngsters graduated from the enterprise college, one with a bachelor’s diploma, the opposite a graduate diploma. The Greifs attended the occasion, and it labored out simply fantastic.
“I did just like the setting,” mentioned Greif, who based the Marshall Faculty’s Lloyd Greif Heart for Entrepreneurial Research. “Identical to Memorial Park has quite a lot of historical past and custom, so does Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.”
USC graduates cheer as they’re acknowledged through the 2025 graduation ceremony on the Coliseum.
Another current custom that hasn’t modified: affinity graduation celebrations.
Regardless of steerage from the Trump administration’s Training Division that advised Black, Latino and different cultural affinity group celebrations throughout graduation had been unlawful types of segregation and spurred cancellations elsewhere within the U.S., USC deliberate to proceed the occasions — and all had been welcome.
‘We’re tremendous excited’
Lavanya Sharma, 21, who was chosen to be a flag bearer, was amongst these within the processional that kicked off the Coliseum celebration.
Her mother and father are immigrants from India, and Sharma is the primary in he household to graduate from a U.S. college. The Coliseum, she mentioned, appears suitably cool for a graduation venue.
“It’s uncommon for college students to be given entry to the sector,” she mentioned. “And I’ve actually began to view the Coliseum as a part of USC. I’ve been there for therefore many … soccer video games hosted by USC.”
Concepcion, who’s Filipino American, can relate. She is also the primary particular person in her household to graduate from a U.S. college. She made plans to attend a number of ceremonies, together with a gathering for college students of Filipino descent that she mentioned is called “P-Grad.”
However she mentioned she’d informed her mother and father she wasn’t positive if she wished to go to the primary graduation.
Her mother and father weren’t having it.
“They had been like, ‘No, we’d like to do it. We’re tremendous excited to only see what it appears like,’” Concepcion mentioned.
Instances workers author Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.
