Harvard will no longer host or fund affinity group celebrations during Commencement, the University’s former diversity office wrote in an email to affinity groups on Monday afternoon.
The decision comes months after the U.S. Department of Education threatened another wave of funding cuts if the University did not cancel graduation celebrations that might separate students based on race.
Though the email was sent from an email address belonging to Harvard’s Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, the office was renamed “Community and Campus Life” hours before, according to an email from Sherri A. Charleston — the University’s chief Community and Campus Life officer, formerly Harvard’s chief diversity officer.
Since the Education Department’s threat — and amid several other ensuing battles with the Trump administration over diversity programing and funding — Harvard officials had left affinity groups in the dark for weeks about Commencement planning for affinity events before the Monday email.
Last year, Harvard hosted ten affinity celebrations for the Class of 2024, including for Arab, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, first-generation, low-income, and Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Desi graduates. The events — some of which drew more than 1,000 people from across Harvard’s schools last year — typically feature awards and speeches from students, faculty, and administrators.
