Columbia University Reverses Course, Sort Of, On Segregated Graduation Ceremonies; Now Calls Them ‘Celebrations’

Columbia University claimed “misinformation on Twitter” led to reports that it was holding segregated graduation ceremonies based on race, sexual identity, and income level.

The College Fix reported that in response to the backlash the university received for the segregated “Multicultural Graduation Ceremonies,” the school’s website was quietly changed to call them “Multicultural Graduation Celebrations.”

The Fix reported in its original article on the ceremonies that they were in addition to the graduation ceremonies for the entire “Ivy League university and its individual schools.”

“In most instances, these smaller, multicultural gatherings evolved from ceremonies originally created by alumni and students,” a school spokesperson told the outlet in an email. “The gatherings are voluntary, open to every student who wants to participate, and have become a highly anticipated and meaningful part of the Columbia graduation experience.”

The Daily Wire’s Chrissy Clark previously reported that the school’s website claimed the segregated events would “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.”

“The ceremonies provided include a ‘Native Graduation’ for Native-American students, a ‘Lavender Graduation’ for students who identify as part of the LGBTQ community, an ‘Asian Graduation,’ a ‘FLI Graduation’ for ‘first-generation and/or low-income community’ members, a ‘Latinx Graduation,’ and a ‘Black Graduation,’” Clark reported.

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According to a report by the National Association of Scholars, more than 75 schools across the nation offer optional segregated graduation ceremonies to students. The most notable and elite institutions include Harvard, the University of California-San Diego, the University of California-Irvine, Arizona State University, Stanford, the University of California-Berkeley, UCLA, and Yale. 

In many cases, these ceremonies are co-hosted by black student affinity groups, specific academic departments, or multicultural centers. 

The phenomena began in 2017 and within two years had co-opted Harvard University into hosting an “UndocuGraduation” for students who were in the country illegally. A speaker at the “UndocuGraduation” was a Harvard history professor who was arrested while protesting President Donald Trump’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2017. 

As Clark reported, National Association of Scholars author Dion Pierre wrote in 2017 that segregated graduation ceremonies would further separate people based on race.

“Ultimately, university officials go wrong when they treat students as black, Latino, or Asian, i.e., as different. By doing so, they reinforce the idea of interminable inequality and conflict between the races,” he wrote. “If our universities hope to ease racial tensions, they should encourage students and parents to meet one another as citizens united by a common sense of purpose, not as mutually opposed ethnic groups.”

The Biden administration has paved the way for additional racial segregation, reversing a previous Department of Education determination that racial “affinity groups” amounted to discrimination since they treated students and staff differently based on race.

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