Sign In
Manage Newsletters
Biden’s war on the ‘common man’
The left’s fear of Elon Musk’s Twitter and free speech
Happy Easter! Long live the true king
Universities are increasingly offering graduation events focused on participants’ identities and segregated by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and even income, according to a report by a conservative education publication.
Campus Reform, which is published by Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia, reported last week that more than three dozen colleges and universities are holding graduation events this summer to recognize groups based on race, gender and sexual orientation.
Columbia University, Harvard University, Ohio State University, Illinois State University and the University of Texas at Austin are among those offering special ceremonies for Black graduates.
SEE ALSO: Groups with strong liberal ties funneled massive 2020 election grants to Democrat-rich districts
Yale University, Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan will hold special ceremonies for Asian and American Indian graduates.
Other schools are hosting special graduations to recognize LGBT, first-generation immigrants, women and low-income students.
“It stokes division by allowing identity politics to form the basis of how students see themselves as undergraduates, graduates and alumni,” said Peter Wood, president of the conservative National Association of Scholars.
Mr. Wood, a former associate provost at Boston University, said alumni groups are also forming around the divisions despite conservatives fighting the trend for at least 10 years.
“It elevates our differences above the idea that we belong to a single community of learners,” Mr. Wood said.
Several of the universities did not respond on Monday to a request for comment.
But many of them have defended the separate ceremonies as student and alumni initiatives that administrators are happy to endorse as a reflection of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Harvard held a Black commencement for the first time in 2018, and Columbia last year added six ceremonies to its main commencement based on race, ethnicity and other self-identifying multicultural factors.
“These events provide a more intimate setting for students and guests to gather, incorporate meaningful cultural traditions and celebrate the specific contributions and achievements of their communities,” Columbia said in a statement on its website last year.
A spokesperson for Southern Illinois University told Campus Reform last week that “these events create a unique space that celebrates the completion of degrees and certificates to graduates with the support of families, friends, faculty, and staff.”
But retired attorney Mark Pulliam, who has written about the trend of Black graduation ceremonies at the University of Texas at Austin, said they violate Martin Luther King Jr.’s “dream” of a color-blind society.
“This is a shameful retreat from MLK’s vision, and for state-funded schools, it is arguably unconstitutional,” Mr. Pulliam said. “Nothing more clearly violates the norm of color-blindness than ‘Black only’ events or facilities.”
While some universities add the celebrations on top of existing commencement ceremonies, others are holding multiple graduations instead of a single ceremony.
California Polytechnic will host nine separate commencement ceremonies on June 3-12. They include a Black Commencement Ceremony, a Lavender (LGBTQ) Commencement Ceremony and a Monarch Commencement that “recognizes and uplifts the accomplishments and success of undocumented students.”
Both that school and the University of California-Davis will offer Black graduates Kente stoles made from traditional West African cloth to wear over their robes.
Graham Piro, a program officer at the nonpartisan Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) in Philadelphia, said the Black graduations could become grounds for future legal challenges.
“As the courts and federal law have reinforced time and time again, good intentions do not make race-based segregation lawful,” said Mr. Piro, whose organization advocates for free speech in higher education.
“Excluding students of a particular race from an educational program wrongly suggests they have nothing to gain from the event, and nothing to contribute because of their race,” he added.
• Sean Salai can be reached at [email protected].
Copyright © 2022 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
Click to Read More and View Comments
Click to Hide
Terms of Use / Privacy Policy / Manage Newsletters
