Recent email sent out by some campus domestic terrorist group...

Dear SCA Faculty,

We hope this letter finds you well. We, the USC Divest from Death Coalition, are writing to express our sincere appreciation for the outstanding work and dedication demonstrated by the faculty of the Marshall School of Business.

As faculty members and role models to students, we urge you to consider the values USC claims to abide by, particularly integrity, when making decisions regarding finals in light of the current climate on USC's campus.

Two principles from USC's mission statement are particularly relevant in this situation: USC writes that "Our commitment to the development of human beings and society requires an unwavering commitment to fostering a community in which we solicit, embrace, and share diverse viewpoints. We are leaders in our field, a global institution in a global center. Building a generation of visionaries, innovators, and creators requires expanding access and opportunity — embracing diversity in every sense of the word."

They also write that "Our words, decisions, and actions align with and are guided by our values, honesty, and ethical principles... The purpose of USC, articulated by our mission, empowers every member of this community to match our values to our actions. For USC to be a leading voice in what universities can and should be, we must be known not just for what we do, but how we do it."

Regardless of personal stances concerning the current atrocities in Gaza, it is not a matter of opinion nor debate that the university has repeatedly impeded upon students' right to protest and on our freedom of speech. Such violations include: deploying DPS to use violent and illegal tactics, deploying LAPD in riot gear to disperse our peaceful protest, delivering threats of suspension/expulsion, and unjustly arresting 93 peaceful protesters, largely consisting of students and faculty as an intimidation tactic.

Despite USC’s attempts to intimidate and disperse our peaceful occupation, we, the students, have only become more steadfast in our mission to speak up against genocide. We have heightened the urgency of our call for an end in war profiteering and investment in genocide, a complete academic boycott of the apartheid state of Israel, an end to to orwellian policing on campus and in the surrounding community, a protection of free speech on campus with full amnesty to all students, staff, and faculty disciplined, penalized, or fired for their pro-Palestine activism, an end to displacement of the residents of the South Central community we occupy, as well as an end to the silence on the genocide in Palestine.

To drive the administration to hear our demands, we, the students, have been occupying our campus. Our occupation started at Alumni Park, moved to Founder’s Park because of extreme LAPD escalation, and then moved back to reoccupy Founder's Park. We have invested huge amounts of our time and energy into organizing the operations of the camp so that all the members of our movement can be fed, have places to sleep, have spaces to learn and build community, and have adequate medical care. In spending so much of our time trying to be active agents in the future of our university while also ensuring that the community we have built within our occupation is sustained, it has become challenging to also keep up with the demands of studying and preparing for finals.

Many students have devoted themselves entirely to fighting for a political cause they deeply believe in and are being forced to make a decision between their future (success in their coursework) and their values. To maintain finals as they currently stand puts students in a lose-lose situation that, either way, diminishes the effort and commitment we, as students made in applying what we have learned from our classes and professors, to both our academic success and to advancing our political cause.

And finally, to continue with business as usual amounts to gross normalization of the continued slaughter and genocide that we see and hear about daily from our peers, on the news, and live streamed to our social media feeds. We implore you, as professors to use your power to stand against this normalization: we are not living through normal times, and to have to continue to attempt to separate and continue our academic lives while witnessing and speaking out against one of the most glaring injustices of our time is an injustice to the people of Palestine, who frankly deserve our full attention as they continue to fight to survive and liberate themselves.

All this being considered, we urge you to consider implementing accommodations as a means to mitigate pressure on students who are impacted and to allow us to focus our full attention on the people of palestine. Many faculty members, who wish to remain anonymous, have already taken steps to rework their finals from traditional exams or projects to reflection papers or celebrations of the course content. Such accommodations not only acknowledge the challenges faced by students during this critical time but also demonstrate a commitment to fostering an environment that supports their well-being, academic success, and intellectual growth as conscientious global citizens. We implore you to join them in considering alternative approaches to finals that reflect USC values and allow students to fully engage with the world around them.

We have been in communication with faculty and administration and understand that there may be certain policy constraints that may restrict any efforts to cancel finals, as has been the case at other universities. Given this and our desire to protect you, our faculty as well, we only ask you to do whatever is in your capacity to support the students.

Thank you for your understanding.

Yours sincerely,

USC Divest from Death Coalition