El Camino College canceled its student graduation speaker for its upcoming 2023-24 commencement, according to a statement from the Associated Students Organization.
The statement, shared on the official Instagram account of the Associated Students Organization, highlighted the ASO President Jose Merino’s “disappointment” with the decision to cancel the student speaker.
Merino underscored that the cancellation of the student speaker disregards both the importance of student expression and the growing trend in California’s higher education system toward student representation and empowerment.
Tyler Strohl, ASO’s primary adviser, said according to the message he received, the administration aims to showcase all student speakers by featuring excerpts from their speeches in the printed commencement programs.
“Obviously, [this] does eliminate anyone speaking out of microphones,” Strohl said. “So what can be a written program might be great, but it’s not the same as someone speaking and unifying the students.”
The Union attempted to speak to the Office of Marketing and Communications, the public relations department of the college, but they were unavailable to comment at the time of publishing.
