LOS ANGELES — On a recent afternoon, Grant Oh zigzagged across the University of Southern California campus as if he were tackling an obstacle course. On his way to his apartment, he encountered police blockade after police blockade as officers arrested demonstrators protesting the war between Israel and Hamas.
In many ways, the chaotic moment was the culmination of a student life that began during the coronavirus pandemic and has been marked by continued unrest in what has become a constant battle for normalcy. Oh already missed his prom and his high school diploma when COVID-19 soared in 2020. He started studying with online classes. Now the 20-year-old will add another missed milestone to his life: USC has canceled its main commencement ceremony, which was expected to be attended by 65,000 people.
His only graduation ceremony was in high school and there were no caps and gowns.
“It’s crazy because I remember starting freshman year with the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which came after senior year of high school when the Black Lives Matter protests were happening and COVID and xenophobia,” he said . “It definitely feels surreal. It still shocks me that we live in a world that is so excited and so willing to tear itself apart.”
Oh, who is pursuing a degree in health promotion and disease prevention, added that his loss of a memorable moment pales in comparison to what happens: “At the end of the day, people are going to die.”
University campuses have always been a hotbed for protests, from the civil rights era to the Vietnam War and demonstrations over apartheid in South Africa. But students today are also carrying additional stress as they have experienced the isolation and fear of the pandemic, and the daily influence of social media that is exacerbating the world’s abuses like never before, experts say.
It’s not just about missed milestones. Study after study shows that Generation Z suffers from much higher rates of anxiety and depression than millennials, says Jean Twenge, a psychologist and professor at San Diego State University who wrote a book called “Generations.” She attributes this largely to the fact that negativity spreads faster and wider on social media than positive messages.
“Generation Z tends to be much more pessimistic than millennials,” she said. “The question for the future is: do they take this pessimism and turn it into concrete action and change, or do they turn it into destruction and chaos?”
Protesters have set up tents on campuses from Harvard and MIT to Stanford and the University of Texas, Austin, raising tensions as many schools prepare for the start of spring. Hundreds of students have been arrested across the country. Inspired by demonstrations at Columbia University, students from more than a dozen American colleges have formed pro-Palestinian camps and vowed to remain there until their demands are met.
The California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt campus will be closed this semester. The university is conducting negotiations with students who have been barricaded in a campus building since Monday and has rebuffed an attempt by police to evict them.
USC announced Thursday that it would cancel its main graduation ceremony after protests erupted not only over the war between Israel and Hamas, but also over the school’s decision earlier this month to suspend the commencement address of its valedictorian Asna Tabassum, who expressed his support for the Palestinians. Officials cited safety concerns.
“Trying to silence Asna made everything much worse,” Oh said, adding that he hopes there will be no violence on graduation day on May 10, when smaller ceremonies will be held by various departments are held.
Maurielle McGarvey graduated from high school in 2019 so she was able to hold a ceremony, but then she took a gap year when many universities only offered online classes. McGarvey, who is earning a degree in screenwriting with a minor in gender and social justice studies from USC, called the cancellations “heartbreaking” and said the university grossly mishandled the situation. She said police with batons came shouting at her as she held a banner as she and fellow protesters said a Jewish prayer.
“It was definitely an overall diminished experience and to take away as the last kind of typical thing that this class was allowed to do after so many strange restrictions were in place, so many customs and traditions changed,” she said. “It is a pity.”
She said the university’s email announcing the cancellation was particularly stung by the link to photos of former graduates in gowns throwing up their caps and cheering. “That’s just an insult to injury,” she said.
Students at other universities were equally gloomy.
“Our grade is cursed,” said Abbie Barkan of Atlanta, 21, who will graduate from the University of Texas in two weeks with a journalism degree and who was part of a group of Jewish students waving flags and singing during a counterprotest Thursday near a pro-Palestinian demonstration on campus.
University of Minnesota senior Sarah Dawley, who participated in pro-Palestinian protests, is grateful her school’s graduation plans haven’t changed. But she said the past few weeks have left her with a mix of emotions. She is appalled to see universities calling the police.
But she said she also feels hopeful after living through the pandemic and becoming part of a community that stands up for what they believe in.
“I think a lot of people will continue to do cool things because after all this, we care a lot,” she said.
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Watson reported from San Diego. AP journalists Stefanie Dazio and Eugene Garcia in Los Angeles, Mark Vancleave in Minneapolis, Jim Vertuno and Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas, and Rodrique Ngowi in Boston contributed to this report.