Should Commencement Events Cater to Smaller Groups Within the Graduating Class?

Jun 05, 2017 · 11 comments
Chris (nowhere I can tell you)
What if a group claimed all white, all Catholic, all Asian ceremonies?

And the idea that no one is forced to attend is absurd, they will be shunned.
ChapelThrill23 (Chapel Hill, NC)
If the students want to organize something, more power to them but I don't think schools should sponsor separate graduation events. A major issue in our society that I see as problematic is resegregation. K-12 schools are more segregated than they were a generation ago and on colleges you see increasing pushes for separate spaces (student unions, etc) for different groups of people. People are also self-segregating to a tremendous degree online. I don't see these as positive developments for society or as ways to help heal past injustices.
RDS (<br/>)
Any other better way of segregating people? I'm not an American, I'm a gay Mexican. Disgustingly stupid.
Jennifer W (NJ)
I am not a college student, but an alumna who just returned from a celebration of Latinx graduates. I have attended this dinner several times. Part of the increase in their popularity is their success, as more graduates of color look back and seek to ease the path of those studying in the same classrooms. I am proud to be a part of celebrating all those who join the alumni of my community, but I am thrilled to take time out to celebrate in a special way those first-gen students of color who are finding success.
Cheryl (Yorktown)
As another non-student, the idea of a special dinner, held by a particular group to celebrate their success seems absolutely fine. I am not comfortable with completely separate official graduation ceremonies. Until reading the article, I didn't know they existed.
My initial reaction is separate graduations are a symbol of our fragmentation, and a very bad idea, cementing separation at the very time when students are embarking on a more public life. Waiting to here from the grads themselves.
Frank (Avon, CT)
I wonder if conservatives would be allowed to hold their own ceremonies? Or whites?
Sean (Ft. Lee. N.J.)
Subalterns seem to be concurring with since overturned Plessy vs. Ferguson 19th Century Supreme Court opinion.
John Brown (Idaho)
What if a student, who fits into one of those categories, chooses not to
attend their "assigned" graduation ?
Jennifer W (NJ)
I can only speak for the celebrations on one campus - but not all students attend. It's not an issue. Students still usually attend their college commencement - I am sure not everyone attends that either, and there is no issue there, right?
Daavid M (NYC)
Students are not coerced to attend these graduation ceremonies; they are merely optional. I'm sure there were a few black Harvard graduating students who chose to go to the regular graduation/commencement and not go to the one ONLY catering to black graduating students.

As far as I know, no one has been bullied for choosing not to attend a ceremony.
Paul (Atlanta)
You would be shamed because you are abandoning your group identity. Good luck if your are a poor, mutli-ethnic, first generation graduate and you happen to not be straight.