Welcome, Trojans! USC hopes you’re enjoying the “new look” — all meant to keep you snug and safe inside metal bars! It’s all part of your “Culture Journey” on the newly-secured campus. It’s for your own good, obviously. Please, don’t worry about the checkpoints, the ID scans, the bag checks. Pay no attention to all those people in security vests, mumbling into two-way radios. Do not ask where all that data collection from all this surveillance goes. 

And would you stop all the conjecture about how it will be used, whether artificial intelligence and facial recognition will be embedded in the surveillance, how many millions we’ve spent to make you feel safe or how those financial diversions may affect your own education. USC is sure you understand that we can’t share knowledge of any of that — for security reasons, of course.

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And please, avoid thinking about the fact that the very heart of our campus, Alumni Park, is fenced off, with tightly controlled access. You can still see it, can’t you?

What’s that? You think our campus has been turned into a fortress? That it feels like occupied territory? Now, hold on there: Didn’t you see the email about the very helpful welcome service tents and quite convenient fast lanes? 

And still, you think it’s just like slogging through airport security? Or that students of color, accustomed to harsh policing, might be triggered by our newly “militarized” campus, as you call it? Or that prospective new students might be scared and turned off, and decide that becoming a Trojan isn’t so great after all? Or that residents of South Central, to whom USC has spent decades reaching out, may now feel even more shunned by their wealthy, privileged neighbor? Come, now; aren’t you exaggerating just a little bit?

Wait: You actually blame USC for all of this? Surely you recall the unsavory protests that forced us to call in dozens of Los Angeles Police Department riot officers with their tear gas, rubber bullets, projectile launchers and zip ties. Yes, it is true, the protestors were peaceful. And no, President Folt didn’t actually visit their encampment at Alumni Park. Yes, it was only a one-minute walk. There was yoga and meditation, you say? Poetry readings, teach-ins and Black and pro-Palestinian solidarity sessions? 

People of all colors and faiths, their voices of conscience raised against the now 40,000 slaughtered Palestinians in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces military firing United States weapons?

But those students were disorderly! And so, darn it, USC did what it had to do. And now, frankly, yes, they are paying the price. The University has an Office of Community Expectations — that’s certainly not an Orwellian name — and they are conducting orderly investigations that include a chance for students to express remorse and write reflection papers explaining what they’ve learned. What a wonderful opportunity for them!

You disagree? Oh, for Pete’s sake. Would you PLEASE stop your incessant WHINING?

And no, we don’t think our Associate Senior Vice President of Security and Risk Assurance has a conflict of interest. Yes, he is also President of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, which oversees the LAPD, which descended on our campus. And yes, the vice president for security does have historic ties with Israel’s military-industrial complex. And yes, the LAPD has conducted joint training with Israeli police multiple times over the last 22 years. But why would you think any of that represents a conflict?

Listen, young person: USC has taken pains to explain all this to you, in as nice a manner as we can muster. But you still don’t seem satisfied! Frankly, we’re growing a bit tired of your attitude! If you’re not careful — if you continue to protest — you may be threatened with suspension, too, just like those disorderly protestors.  

It’s lovely to hear you say that academic freedom, intellectual bravery and the ability to foster a free and open mind are at the heart of your Trojan education. But honestly, enough with your tiresome claim that these “voices of conscience” were simply following the “Unifying Values” of our “Culture Journey”: to “stand up for what is right, regardless of status or power.” Please bear in mind: We have our own interests to protect! (A hint: our Board of Trustees is laden with billionaires, and one of them wants to annex the entire West Bank to Israel.) USC isn’t taking any risks.

So, please understand. All of this is necessary. It is making USC better and safer, and we are smiling, and writing sunny emails, and Fighting On!, just as much as we did before. So, nothing has really changed. Everything will be fine.

As long as you stop asking questions.

Signed,

Sandy Tolan

Sandy Tolan is a professor at USC’s Annenberg School, and director of the grad program in Specialized Journalism. He has reported from more than 40 countries and occupied lands in a career spanning four decades. He is author of two books on the tragedy of Israel-Palestine: Children of the Stone, and the international bestseller, The Lemon Tree.