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This week, the University of Southern California canceled the valedictorian speech of its senior class at a time when there is a growing debate over the limits of free speech on American college campuses.

USC Asna Tabassum, a Muslim biomedical engineer, was selected from 100 outstanding students to address the graduating class of 2024 this May. However, the school withdrew the invitation for her to speak at the graduation ceremony citing security concerns.

Tabassum denounced the decision, which she attributed to her public support for Palestinian human rights. She said it is part of a hate campaign to silence my voice.

The school says it's a matter of safety, not free speech. School officials say they have received an alarming number of violent threats after selecting her as the speaker.

USC is one of many American universities that have struggled with policies on free speech and campus protest since the October terror attack by Hamas in Israel and the ongoing fighting in Gaza. After weeks or months of campus protests and rallies, schools have taken stronger action to punish protesters who administrators say have become disruptive.

On Thursday at Columbia University in New York, police arrested more than 100 students who had gathered on campus for pro-Palestinian protests. The school's dean wrote that the protesters were told multiple times that they were violating university policies and would be suspended. The students say they are exercising their right to free speech.

At American University of Washington, protests in all campus buildings have been banned by the school's president since January. Under the new policy, students cannot hold rallies, engage in silent protests or put up posters on any campus building.

Protests and security

University students have a long history of engaging in political activism. From the Vietnam War to abortion rights, universities have played a key role in American political debates.

However, students now say schools like AU with a long-standing protest culture are silencing protesters with new rules.

Arusa Islam, American University's student body president-elect and current vice president, says the policies are preventing an open discussion about US foreign policy.

Protesting indoors was never a problem, it was never an issue before October 7, Islami said. Students were allowed to put up posters on buildings and students were allowed to hold a silent protest.

And now we no longer have this right, she added. We have been silenced and it is affecting us a lot.

American University President Sylvia Burwell says the school's new policies are intended to ensure that protests do not disrupt university activity.

Burwell also referred to recent events on campus that made Jewish students feel unsafe and unwelcome. She added that anti-Semitism is abhorrent, wrong and will not be tolerated at American University.

While administrators insist they are making narrow restrictions in the interest of providing education, critics say the policies have a far-reaching effect.

At Cornell University, where the new rules went into effect in January, Claire Ting, executive vice president of the Cornell Student Assembly, said the policies have had a disturbing effect on campus.

The campus climate at Cornell has been tense around free speech lately, Ting emailed VOA.

Ting said students and faculty feel the policy has had chilling effects on free expression.

Students report facing arbitrary, escalating punishments for violating the policy, with the policy itself lacking clear outlines of consequences for civil disobedience, she added.

In its new policy, Cornell warns students that disciplinary action may be taken if protests disrupt people or traffic, damage school property or interfere with school operations in any way.

In its campus-wide announcement explaining the new guidelines, the school wrote that the new policy would ensure that expressive activity is allowed but must remain nonviolent.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, also known as FIRE, has been tracking free speech issues on American campuses.

FIRE and College Pulse have produced an annual survey, starting in 2022, ranking colleges based on their policies and what students say about the free speech climate on campus.

This year the group reported that an alarming number of students say they self-censor or find their administrations unclear on free speech issues.

College campuses have always been places where students have not been afraid to speak out, and with the recent conflict in Gaza after the 7/10 attacks, it has been very heated on both sides of the issue, said Zach Greenberg, senior of the FIRE program.

Harvard ranked last in this annual survey. FIRE said the school punished some professors and researchers for what they had said or written, and students reported a bad climate for free speech on campus.

The debate came to a head in Congress late last year, when Harvard's president testified about complaints of widespread anti-Semitism.

I don't think you'll find many students on campus right now who would say we're the model for the flourishing of free speech and the exchange of ideas in the country, said J. Sellers Hill, president of Harvard's school newspaper, The Harvard Crimson.

But I think you've really seen it accepted by the administrators, and it seems like it's something they're committed to taking on.

As head of the Harvard Crimson, Hill manages the paper's 350 editors and 90 reporters, who have covered in detail the ongoing speech/protest controversy and the resignation of former President Claudine Gay following her testimony to Congress.

I think no one would dispute that Harvard has work to do and progress to make, Hill said. I think it's difficult, for me, that Harvard is uniquely in a league of its own in terms of intolerance of speech. This does not match what I have seen on our college campus or other college campuses around the country. I think Harvard is held to a higher standard.