During the Q&A session at Tuesday’s Open Dialogue Project event, the first question wasn’t directed at the panelists but at President Beong-Soo Kim himself.

A student audience member stood up and accused the initiative of hypocrisy, referring to a recent ODP event where students protested against a USC contract selling cadavers to the United States Navy for Israel Defense Forces surgeon training.

According to the student, who asked to remain anonymous, Kim refused to engage with protestors who were outside Bovard Auditorium as the event took place.

“What I want to point to you, President Kim, is how you respond to [what] I feel is a hypocrisy in having this Open Dialogue event [about] democracy, when in fact, we have these police who were standing outside in response to these students,” the student said. “You already have this example of distrust through the USC cadaver contract, and the fact that donors were not informed that these donated bodies would be used this way.”

The question was met with applause. In response, Kim suggested an event on this issue should be hosted. No formal announcement has been made yet.

“I thought it was wonderful that we had some of the individuals who were outside [Bovard Auditorium] come into the auditorium and engage with the professor and the program, so I don’t see any inconsistency at all,” Kim said. “There’s a lot substantively that we can talk about, and how about this? Let’s have an Open Dialogue event about it, and then we can have a rational, full conversation about it.”

The event on Tuesday, the latest installment of the ODP, was an International Day of Democracy Conversation at Tutor Campus Center. It featured professors from different USC schools in a panel discussion about the institutions, information systems and civic practices that sustain democracy.

Launched in October 2025, ODP aims to encourage student civic engagement through programming. All ODP events are open to any USC community members. Tuesday’s panel specifically discussed democratic societies and their risks, honoring the namesake day of significance observed annually on Sept. 15.

However, some students raised concerns, particularly about the initiative’s democratic values. Though not associated with the student who raised the question, the USC chapter of South Central Against Labor Exploitation-South Central for Justice in Palestine had been tabling outside of TCC before the event began. USC SCALE-SJP is a pro-Palestinian advocacy group not affiliated with the University.

In an interview with the Daily Trojan, a spokesperson for USC SCALE-SJP, who asked to remain anonymous, said the group did not originally plan to protest at the ODP event. They realized the audience attending the event was the “civically engaged and politically minded students” they wanted to reach and bring their cause to.

“We believe that the Open Dialogue Project is open dialogue in name only. We don’t think anything is going to change from President Kim listening to us,” the spokesperson said. “The pressure has to come from more than just us … Our goal was to essentially educate people on the way in, and then hope that they would be encouraged to ask these kinds of questions. … It’s great to hear that that goal was accomplished.”

Meanwhile, members of the United Auto Workers Local 872, a union representing USC graduate student workers, and United Faculty-United Auto Workers sat in during the event, collectively wearing shirts with the organization’s logo.

According to Ishaan Thota, a doctoral student studying computational biology and bioinformatics, the unions’ Tuesday sit-in was in response to USC’s move to appeal the formation of a USC faculty union. The union is a group of non-tenure-track faculty who voted in June to unionize. USC appealed directly to the federal National Labor Relations Board, claiming the proposed union was unconstitutional.

“We are here because we think that on a day that’s supposed to be celebrating democracy, [USC] hasn’t really been abiding by those principles with regard to our non-tenure-track faculty,” Thota said. “The faculty are pretty frustrated that their voice is not being heard, and that their democratic vote is not being respected.”

Earlier this month, UF-UAW organized a rally outside Bovard Administration Building on Sept. 2. It attracted a crowd of roughly 200 people and was joined by politicians, including Nithya Raman, a mayoral candidate.

Janielle Cuala, a doctoral student studying medical biophysics and president of the USC Graduate Student Government, also attended the event. Part of Cuala’s responsibility is to relay the content of school events such as ODP back to graduate students, who can often feel out of the loop, Cuala said.

“The transparency of information always helps people feel more empowered to get information about what USC is doing because I think most students just don’t know,” Cuala said. “They think USC is always against them. But having an open back-and-forth with President Kim or the people that lead all of the politics in and outside of USC really helps humanize everyone.”

Learning about the UAW sit-ins, the USC SCALE-SJP spokesperson said they support the strategy of demonstrating at ODP events spreading among organizations.

“Kim clearly is not interested in creating regular channels to talk with people who are interested in the decisions that impact not only USC but USC’s neighborhood and [the] genocide happening in Gaza as well,” the spokesperson said. “The fact that they’re celebrating Democracy Day … the hypocrisy there is very clear.”

Thota said that he was surprised to find his views and the panelists’ views more aligned than opposed.

“They also want democracy to thrive. They want people to be heard and respected.” Thota said. “I think this would actually be one of those actions: if they do drop that appeal and stop using lawfare to impede unionization. I think that would go a long way to help re-establish that trust at USC.”