“Like a family” is how Cal State Fullerton senior Kaia Karim describes her college experience with her SWANA classmates, with whom she celebrated graduation in a special ceremony this month for Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) students.
Karim, president of CSUF’s Lebanese Student Association, said she didn’t have many Arab friends growing up. She often felt like she “wasn’t Arab enough” but also “not American enough.”
“I wouldn’t have had the same college experience without my SWANA family,” Karim, 21, said. “There’s that natural understanding of what it means to be from the Middle East.”
Cal State Fullerton is one of dozens of universities across Southern California that, at the end of each school year, host cultural graduation celebrations and affinity ceremonies recognizing student diversity and achievement. While not part of the larger school graduations, voluntary special events like the Chicano/Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, African/Black, Indigenous, Lavender LGBTQ+ graduations and more are open to all eligible college graduates wishing to honor their culture and community.
But many schools nationwide are grappling with what to do amid the Trump administration’s push to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within higher education. Early on in his presidency, Trump ordered schools to end DEI programs or lose federal funding, fearing these programs exclude or differentiate students based on race.
A Feb. 14 Department of Education letter, signed by Craig Trainor, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, directed colleges to distance themselves from DEI. It cited a 2023 Supreme Court decision that outlawed the use of racial preferences in college admissions, which also applied to things like hiring, scholarships and graduation ceremonies.
“Many American schools and universities even encourage segregation by race at graduation ceremonies and in dormitories and other facilities,” the letter read, calling this a “shameful echo of a darker period in this country’s history.”
Trump’s anti-DEI campaign in education, currently stalled in the courts, has brought a new focus on these annual cultural graduations — which organizers and students said have long been seen as a way of recognizing identity, accomplishments, and uplifting underrepresented students.
Which is why students like Karim feel these celebrations are needed. She called them “critical.”
It’s “a push for representation; a way to say that we’re here, and we’re people, and we deserve the same rights as everyone,” the Orange resident said. “Diversity and representation is important. It’s a big priority for me to show up for everyone and be there for our community.”
Karim said this year’s SWANA ceremony — one of a handful of cultural recognitions hosted at Cal State Fullerton — affected her “in a way the regular commencement ceremony will not.”
“Cultural understanding and community makes you feel less alone, especially in times of hardship,” she added. “America is built on immigrants.”
Royel M. Johnson, a USC professor, researcher, and the director of the National Assessment of Collegiate Campus Climates, said it was important “to remind colleges and universities why these ceremonies and spaces were created in the first place: because underrepresented students have long felt invisible or unwelcome in traditional campus celebrations, which are often normed around dominant cultural values.”
“These are not divisive events—they are affirming, necessary counter-spaces that validate students’ identities and honor their unique journeys,” Johnson said. “Canceling them now, especially under political pressure, is disingenuous and signals a troubling retreat from institutional commitments that have been long-standing and previously celebrated.”
Johnson called it a “full-on assault on DEI in education” from the Trump administration.
“The chilling effect is real. Colleges are scrambling to assess legal risk, DEI staff are being laid off, and programs—especially those explicitly serving racially or gender minoritized students—have been dismantled,” he continued. “These ceremonies are powerful affirmations. For many students, graduation is not just a personal academic milestone—it’s a communal victory. Affinity graduations create intentional space to celebrate with cultural pride, to honor the unique challenges students have navigated, and to be seen on their own terms.”
USC education and public policy professor Shaun Harper, founder of the university’s Race and Equity Center, said it’s clear that lawmakers “who baselessly argue that celebrations for diverse college graduates are somehow hateful have never attended one of those events. Those ceremonies are the antithesis of divisiveness. Nothing about them is discriminatory, definitely not illegal… these are beautiful cultural celebrations that white and straight members of the campus community often happily attend. They’re welcomed, in fact.”
Harper noted that special ceremonies, such as USC’s May 14 commencement hosted by the Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs and the Black Alumni Association, are a chance for Black students to “finally get the opportunity to not be the lone persons from their racial group in a space on campus.”
“For just a few joyous hours at the very end of their college journeys,” he said, “(students) and their tuition-paying Black families deserve the chance to celebrate the survival of four years of such cruel underrepresentation.”
USC hosted several identity-based celebrations on May 14 and 15, including an Asian Pacific American, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ commencement.
Wearing a bright blue, red and yellow stole and an embroidered flag, graduating senior Abbe Pingol, who majored in pharmacology and drug development, was proud to represent USC’s Filipino club, Troy Philippines, at the APA ceremony and at USC’s main commencement at the L.A. Coliseum. The San Jose native is the first to obtain a Bachelor’s degree in his family.
“It’s something I’m very proud to show off, that I’m Filipino and very passionate about my culture,” Pingol said. “The novelty of having an Asian Pacific grad is really powerful; seeing a specific denomination walking together shows these communities exist. It’s a statement. It reminds me that we might be a small community, but we’re really loud. We’re not the majority — and that’s great. I love showing there are other cultures that (are) represented and should be seen, especially at a huge institution like USC.”
If DEI programs were cut or restricted in the future, Pingol said that students “should not back down.” Ethnic celebrations “show how far these different groups have gone, and how much we’ve achieved.”
“I genuinely don’t understand why certain people are threatened by diversity,” he said. “We’re here, and we gotta celebrate that.”
A celebratory tradition
True to the celebration, many of these open graduation events are organized by student groups and include cultural elements, from colorful live performances to keynote speeches emphasizing diaspora pride. The often ticketed, private events usually involve fees used for entertainment — such as folklórico dancers or a live mariachi band at a Latinx student graduation — or grad memorabilia, such as symbolic lei, stoles, or native flags. Degrees aren’t given out during the ceremonies, but organizers called them a special way to celebrate graduates’ identities outside of their education.
Cal State Long Beach spokesperson Jim Milbury said they are “powerful affirmations” of students’ achievements. The university celebrated nine cultural graduations honoring different Asian communities, as well as Latinx, Black, Native American and LGBTQ+ graduates, this year.
“Our students have reached an incredible milestone, and they deserve a celebration that honors not only their academic success but also the cultural journeys that shaped them,” Milbury said in a statement. “These intentional, meaningful events open to all students offer families and communities the chance to witness and share in their accomplishments.”
Chapman University, which faced student backlash in spring after placing two top DEI administrators on leave, did not plan any official cultural graduation events, spokesperson Jeffrey Howard said. But students organized at least two cultural celebrations for Latinx and Black students, funded by Chapman’s student government association, in mid-May.
Pomona College and Scripps College, both part of the Claremont Colleges, planned ticketed graduation ceremonies for Black, Latinx, and interfaith students on May 16.
Other Cal State schools, including Cal State L.A., Dominguez Hills, Northridge and Cal Poly Pomona hosted their affinity celebrations as graduation season kicked off in May, celebrating its Indigenous, Asian American, Black, LGBTQ+, formerly incarcerated and undocumented student groups.
Cal State San Bernardino hosted several cultural ceremonies at the end of the school year, including the Latinx and Black graduations on May 10.
Ralph Figueroa attended both the veteran and Latinx graduation events at CSUSB on May 10. The Army veteran is earning his Master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling, with dreams of becoming a certified rehab counselor. He saw the school’s bilingual Latinx ceremony — which this year landed on May 10, Mexican Mother’s Day — as a way to show that “Latinos can do anything they put their mind to.”
Figueroa lost his mother in 2019 before he was able to obtain his degrees. He said he felt her presence at the celebration and during commencement, where he proudly wore his multicolored stole.
“It was beautiful to hear the (students’) thank you’s in Spanish, and very emotional,” Figueroa, 48, said.
With many Cal State schools facing budget uncertainties, Figueroa noted that added pressure from the Trump administration could lead to diverse, vulnerable student programs falling through the cracks, and that he supports DEI efforts as both a veteran and a Latino.
“I worry the most for undocumented students, because a lot of this administration’s changes are going to affect them and their families directly,” he said. “I can’t imagine how scary it feels to say out loud that you’re undocumented during this time. It’s important to support and rally around each other.”
He feels it’s important to support diversity, equity and inclusion programming and efforts to enhance the lives of everyone.
“In order for us to find equitable value in our society, we have to address components of DEI,” he said. “Native people were here first — so technically, we’re all immigrants.”
University of California schools and students were also preparing for upcoming graduation events in June.
UC Riverside’s Chicano Student Programs will host the annual Chicano Latino Year-End Celebration, previously called “Raza Grad,” on June 8. The ceremony aims to “celebrate students’ personal success and academic achievements in the spirit and traditions of the Chicano/Latino culture,” organizers said, ahead of the main graduations in mid-June.
UC Irvine students have been organizing cultural celebrations for graduating seniors since the 1970s, said spokesperson Tom Vasich.
The annual Nuestra Graduación celebration on June 12 will showcase Latinx culture, with performances from UCI student mariachi and ballet folklórico groups. Mariachi Orguello de UCI is the first official student-led mariachi, in its first year. Graduates wear serape-inspired stoles, and family members are also allowed to walk the stage, highlighting the importance of family in Latinx culture.
Susana Gonzalez Ochoa, the communications co-chair, said that 375 graduates were being honored at Nuestra Graduación. It marked a record 600+ applications to participate in the celebration, Gonzalez Ochoa said.
Gonzalez Ochoa, who lives in Buena Park, is graduating this year with a bachelor’s degree in history and sociology. The cultural celebrations, she said, properly “reflect the population and culture.”
“Since it’s ran by students, we also have the students in mind,” the 22-year-old said. “These are about adding the celebration to the graduation. It reflects who the students are and what they believe in.”
Darlene Sanzon, a senior art major and music industry minor at UCLA, is excited to bring her parents to her school’s 52nd annual Latinx celebration on campus on June 15. The first-generation college student — and youngest woman to graduate — said the event being bilingual is what appeals to her most about the ceremony, and that she loves the cultural aspects.
It’s about “my parents being able to understand my graduation,” Sanzon said. “It’s a plus that my family will be able to enjoy and understand, and to be able to graduate with those who are also first gen and (who) have dealt with being a minority within this huge UC system.”
Representation “especially in this current political climate,” along with fighting lower graduation rates among the Latinx community, is Sanzon’s biggest motivator.
“It pushes me to work harder, make my voice present against stereotypes; to take up as much space as I can,” the Baldwin Park resident said. “To rejoice in this huge accomplishment, and set an example for my cousins. I’m looking forward for my parents to see all their sacrifices were worth it — this is honestly for them.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.