'Significant Activity at the Center of UPC': USC's TrojansAlerts Tracked the 93 Arrests That Cancelled Commencement
·CA·civil unrestadvisoryhigh confidence
Confirmed Threat
Beginning in the early morning of Wednesday April 24, 2024, pro-Palestine protesters occupied Alumni Park at the center of the University of Southern California's University Park Campus. USC pushed a series of TrojansAlerts over the course of the day, beginning with notifications of 'significant activity at the center of the UPC campus' and escalating to warnings that anyone remaining in Alumni Park would be arrested; LAPD officers in riot gear arrested 93 people overnight. Within 24 hours, USC announced it would cancel its main-stage commencement ceremony, making it the first major U.S. university to do so over the encampment movement.
Alerts
4
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
University of Southern California
Private R1 · CA
~49,500 studentsTrojansAlert
Confirmed Timeline
Alert Sequence
4 messages in sequence · 1 verified verbatim
Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.
TrojansAlert: There is significant activity at the center of the UPC campus due to a demonstration. Avoid the area.
This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.
TrojansAlert is USC's emergency notification system for the University Park Campus and Health Sciences Campus, operated by USC's Department of Public Safety
The phrase 'significant activity' is a politically-neutral euphemism similar to Columbia's 'heightened activity' — both spring 2024 alerts deliberately avoided characterizing the underlying protest
Alumni Park sits at the heart of the UPC campus between Bovard Auditorium and Doheny Library, making any demonstration there immediately visible to all foot traffic crossing campus
TrojansAlert: Anyone remaining at the demonstration in Alumni Park may be subject to arrest. Avoid the center of the UPC campus.
This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.
This second TrojansAlert is the formal warning of impending arrest — a Clery-adjacent advisory functioning as legal notice to participants
USC's Department of Public Safety coordinated closely with LAPD throughout the operation; LAPD declared an unlawful assembly later that evening
Issuing the warning by SMS provided contemporaneous evidence that participants had been put on notice — a meaningful legal posture for the trespass charges that followed
UPDATESMS+8h 30m
Approximate reconstruction·129 chars
TrojansAlert: Police activity ongoing at Alumni Park. Avoid the center of campus. Use perimeter routes only. Updates will follow.
This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.
LAPD declared an unlawful assembly and began making arrests in waves through the late evening of April 24 into the early morning of April 25
USC also closed all campus buildings to non-residential affiliates and required Trojan ID cards for entry through limited gates
By 11:30 PM PDT LAPD had arrested 93 protesters; one was additionally charged with assault with a deadly weapon
These past few weeks have been incredibly difficult for all of us. As your president, my responsibility is to uphold our Trojan values so that everyone who lives, learns, and works here can have safe places to live, learn, and speak. This week, Alumni Park became unsafe. No one wants to have people arrested on their campus. Ever. But, when long-standing safety policies are flagrantly violated, buildings vandalized, DPS directives repeatedly ignored, threatening language shouted, people assaulted, and access to critical academic buildings blocked, we must act immediately to protect our community. USC has long-standing protocols that allow for peaceful protesting, and we have been working successfully with our community to ensure these rules have been followed at gatherings, protests, and vigils taking place all year. USC also has firm rules regarding harassment and bullying that we will uphold.
President Carol L. Folt published this message on USC's We Are SC official communications site on April 26, 2024 — two days after the Alumni Park arrests and one day after USC announced the cancellation of its main commencement
The phrase 'This week, Alumni Park became unsafe' was the most-quoted line from the statement and reframed the encampment as a safety failure rather than a viewpoint dispute
Folt cited 'buildings vandalized, DPS directives repeatedly ignored, threatening language shouted, people assaulted, and access to critical academic buildings blocked' as the predicate for asking LAPD to clear Alumni Park
Context
Background
The April 24, 2024 USC Alumni Park occupation was one of the earliest large-scale pro-Palestine encampments at a private R1 university and is best remembered for the cascading institutional consequences it triggered. The occupation began in the early morning of Wednesday April 24 (organizers arrived at Alumni Park before dawn) when members of the USC Divest from Death Coalition erected tents and a stage at Alumni Park, the central plaza of the University Park Campus. USC's Department of Public Safety pushed multiple TrojansAlerts over the course of the day beginning with neutral 'significant activity' language and escalating to formal warnings of arrest. LAPD officers in riot gear arrived in the late afternoon, declared an unlawful assembly, and made 93 arrests overnight. The arrests came against an already-tense backdrop: USC had cancelled the commencement speech of class of 2024 valedictorian Asna Tabassum two weeks earlier on April 15, citing safety concerns about her pro-Palestine social media. Within 24 hours of the Alumni Park arrests, USC announced it would cancel the May 10 main-stage commencement ceremony, becoming the first major U.S. university to scrap graduation over the encampment movement; the school continued individual school-level ceremonies. USC closed the University Park Campus to non-affiliates and required Trojan ID cards for entry through limited gates. A second encampment was erected the next day; LAPD cleared it on May 5, 2024 with additional arrests. The case is significant for this archive because it documents an aggressive use of TrojansAlerts as an integrated component of a planned arrest operation — issuing escalating warnings hours before LAPD arrived to provide both community awareness and a contemporaneous legal record that participants had been notified of arrest risk.
Analysis
Key Findings
01USC issued a sequence of escalating TrojansAlerts over roughly 9 hours, beginning with neutral 'significant activity' language and ending with arrest-imminent warnings — a graduated communication pattern designed both to inform and to establish legal notice
0293 people were arrested overnight on April 24-25; one was charged with assault with a deadly weapon
03USC became the first major U.S. university to cancel its main-stage commencement ceremony over the spring 2024 encampment movement, announcing the cancellation within 24 hours of the arrests
04The Alumni Park arrests came two weeks after USC had cancelled valedictorian Asna Tabassum's commencement speech over similar safety concerns, compounding the institutional reputational impact
05The 'significant activity' phrasing closely parallels Columbia's 'heightened activity' — both private R1 universities used near-identical politically-neutral euphemisms in their alerts during the same week
Outcome
93 people arrested at Alumni Park overnight (April 24-25, 2024); one person arrested for assault with a deadly weapon. USC closed the University Park Campus to non-affiliates and cancelled the May 10 main-stage commencement ceremony. A second encampment was established the next day; LAPD cleared it on May 5, 2024. USC ultimately settled criminal charges against most arrestees through diversion programs.