Students Object After NYU Cancels Identity-Based Graduation Ceremonies
“the cancellation of the affinity groups is setting a dangerous precedent for anyone associated with NYU”
These woke students don’t even realize that they’re setting back the Civil Rights Movement.
Campus Reform reports:
NYU cancels identity-based graduation ceremonies, sparks student backlash
New York University (NYU) recently scrapped a number of identity-based graduation events, leading to student protests against the decision.
The school canceled several of its “affinity” graduation ceremonies last month, citing concerns over the “current political climate.”
Such ceremonies include a specific theme related to race, ethnicity, or gender and sexuality. Campus Reform previously reported on a Lavender Graduation for ‘LGBTQIA+” graduates co-organized by the City College of New York and LaGuardia Community College.
Following the cancellations, students organized an activism group, called “Our Stories, Our Stage,” to lobby the school to reinstate the events. The group launched a petition, which has garnered over 1,400 signatures, claiming that the cancellations are an attempt “to appease the current administration.”
“Whether you’re in your first or last year of your undergraduate or graduate degree, faculty, alumni, or ally, the cancellation of the affinity groups is setting a dangerous precedent for anyone associated with NYU, or other higher educational institutions,” the petition reads. “NYU has now shown it is willing to throw its students under the bus in exchange for money.”
The Trump administration has indeed cracked down on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within colleges and universities. Shortly after taking office, the president signed an executive order, entitled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” which threatened the federal funding of schools that refuse to comply with existing anti-discrimination legislation, which the administration believes DEI initiatives violate.
The organization also attended a March 11 Student Government Assembly meeting, during which it called on the SGA chair to draft a resolution for next month’s University Senate meeting demanding that the ceremonies be made a permanent fixture at the school.
Student Senators Council (SSC) Alternate Senator Raea Lovett had also proposed a prior resolution calling for affinity ceremonies to “remain in effect” unless the Senate formally approves the administration’s changes, though the status of the proposal cannot be confirmed as of the time of publication.
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Comments
Dangerous precedent? I would say the dangerous precedent would be letting these whiny entitled know-nothing snot nosed shits have any say in running things.
Even more dangerous; letting them out of the house without close adult supervision.
The problem is “student government”, which is represents nothing other than its own members, but claims to represent the whole student body. Most college students pay no attention to these elections, and many of the minority who do vote have no idea what they are voting for. Yet the activists who do become leaders of these organizations claim to speak for the students, and media always report them as the legitimate voices of the student body. Student governments were set up by university administrations in the 1930s–1950s as a condescending exercise, to give “young people” a mock exercise in citizenship, with the assumption that they would concern themselves with the issues that were likely to concern undergraduates: Homecoming and the Senior Prom, automobile privileges, housing preferences, perhaps parietal hours (subject to the deans’ veto, of course). Administrators had no idea what was happening when the first waves of political activism hit them in the mid-1960s. At first, they counted upon student governments to co-opt the protests. Radical activists saw what was happening and infiltrated student governments as well; university administrations had created a monster by giving an authoritative voice to “kids” who no longer “knew their place”. As successive waves of faculty hires became more radical, the radicals’ takeover of student organizations, including student governments, became sacrosanct. Still, most students remain detached from the elections to these groups.
“is represents” is obviously a typo. This site has no provision for editing, dammit!
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