Graduating students of color at Harvard University and other colleges across the country would end their semester by attending affinity graduation ceremonies — but this year, they had to organize these celebrations without the school’s financial backing.
Harvard, currently battling the Trump administration over a range of issues, halted all of its affinity ceremonies for students this year. This left alumni stepping in to raise funds and students scrambling to find new spaces.
Members of the Harvard Black Alumni Society raised $46,000 for this year’s event after the university announced April 28 that it would no longer fund the ceremonies.
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Harvard’s Asian American Alumni Alliance said on Facebook that its ceremony was important for students to experience because they provide space for recognition, solidarity, and community in the face of uncertainty. The alliance said the ceremony took place as the Trump administration announced plans to revoke student visas for international students at the university.
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Affinity graduations at most higher education institutions are usually optional and supplement the main commencement ceremony. They are meant to honor students’ academic achievements and cultural identities, specifically those from communities that have “historically been denied access to higher education because of who they are,” according to the Leadership Conference Education Fund, a civil rights policy think tank. This includes disabled students, people of color, Jewish and first-generation students, among others.
The university joins many others across the nation that have canceled affinity graduations after the federal crackdown on funding for colleges. {snip}
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