Mixing Commencement and Culture

Not everyone in Karen Hernandez’s family speaks English, so the UCLA senior plans to skip the regular commencement and take her family to an alternative, ethnic one--just the sort of graduation ceremony that had some University of California regents fuming this week.

The Hernandez clan plans to attend the Raza Graduation on Sunday, where every word will be translated into Spanish.

The ceremony for 300 graduating Latino students will have the traditional speeches, black robes and mortarboards, with a few extras: Students will wear red sashes and tassels of red and black--the colors of the United Farm Workers. And the ceremony will be spiced up by mariachi and marimba bands and Aztec folk dancers.

Kiahnna Patton will wear her cap and gown to UCLA’s regular commencement for psychology majors this weekend, then add a bright red, black and green kente sash to attend the All African People’s Graduation.

Arcel DeGuzman will join 80 other Filipino American students in a ceremony in Royce Hall, all wearing blue-and-red striped sashes with a sun--just like the flag of the Philippines. A student choir will lead them in the American and Filipino national anthems.

Such graduation ceremonies with an ethnic twist have been around for decades at UCLA and have spread to other universities as a way for students to celebrate both their academic achievements and their cultural heritages.

Regent Objects to ‘Balkanization’

But even as final plans were being crafted for this year’s alternative graduations in Westwood, Ward Connerly, the UC regent who orchestrated the ban on racial preferences, was questioning the propriety of such multicultural ceremonies.

“Shouldn’t graduation day be the one day when all of our students regardless of their background can unite as one community?” Connerly asked. “If we are to become one America, we have to examine our conduct and our activities to contribute to that.”

Raising the issue Thursday at a UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco, Connerly said he objects to the use of university funds and student fees to subsidize activities that promote the “balkanization of our society.”

“What if a white student union wanted money from student registration fees for a ceremony solely for white graduates?” Connerly asked. “I think we would come unglued.”

University of California administrators say student fees and other funds are available to any recognized student group that wants to hold a graduation ceremony or party, regardless of race or ethnicity.

At UCLA, there’s an American Indian Graduation Ceremony, an Asian Pacific Islander Graduation and an Iranian Student Graduation.

There’s also a Lavender Graduation sponsored by the campus gay and lesbian community, a separate ceremony for anthropology majors, one for students immersed in the study of developmental disabilities, and another for those majoring in international development.

UCLA, meanwhile, stages 16 official commencement ceremonies for graduate and undergraduate students, broken into fields of study.

The 1,119 undergraduates completing humanities studies will congregate in UCLA’s Tennis Center this evening, and 3,028 social science majors will meet in Pauley Pavilion at noon Sunday to receive their diplomas and hear a speech by the sort of dignitary drawn to major university graduations: Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez.

The student-initiated celebrations are sandwiched between official events.

Student groups start fund-raising early in their senior year by holding bake sales or setting up ethnic food booths on campus and soliciting donations, all to supplement grants from the university. But even with an early start, they say, it can be a struggle to meet all of the costs.

Filipino American students have raised several thousand dollars to add to the $7,200 provided by the student government and the university, said organizer Margie Rodriguez. That’s only enough to cover the $10,000 cost of renting Royce Hall, though, so they were scrounging this week for another $2,000 for food and drink and other expenses.

It was the ceremonies for blacks and Latinos that brought on debate at the regents meeting in San Francisco. And it was no surprise that the subject was raised by Connerly, who has campaigned for an end to race-based admissions and called on the university system to reexamine ethnic studies programs and other race or ethnic-based pursuits.

Connerly said he has never attended one of the ethnic graduation celebrations, but saw a videotape of one at UC Santa Cruz, at which attendees waved Mexican flags.

Regent Sue Johnson, who characterized her comments as “politically uncorrect,” similarly is disturbed when multiculturalism “is used to formalize separatism along ethnic lines. Getting away from where we come from is what America is all about.”

Connerly pressed UC general counsel James Holst for an opinion on whether public funding of these events violates Proposition 209, the ban on racial preferences. Holst reported back that the funding is legally permissible--as it is now handled--because it is doled out to registered student groups without regard to race or ethnicity.

Several regents then said that, despite personal reservations about separate graduation celebrations, they should let the matter drop. “It is a morass we shouldn’t get into,” said Regent John Davies.

Regent William T. Bagley went a step further, chiding the board for even delving into the matter.

“Micro-managing is something that this board shouldn’t be doing,” he said. “I’m afraid that we are going to be telling our prospective black and brown students that, ‘Hell, you can’t even get together for fun.’ ”

The students who organize the ceremonies at UCLA say they are open to everyone--and that some whites and Asian Americans attend the All African People’s celebration, for instance, because they are interested in African culture. But the events are designed mostly to provide a sense of community for minority students who, they say, often reel from culture shock at such a big, impersonal university.

The Latino student group MEChA, which is sponsoring its 25th Raza Graduation, has also invited high school seniors who will be college freshmen next fall and students from lower grades, who are paired with MEChA mentors as part of a UCLA outreach program into Los Angeles schools.

The idea? To give them a glimpse of the payoff for staying in high school, said Gabino Arredondo, one of the principal organizers. “It’s a great motivator,” he said.

Arredondo expects about 300 mostly Latino UCLA students--from undergraduates to doctoral candidates--to walk up to the podium and be handed a rolled up “certificate of participation” by a faculty member. It looks like a regular commencement, except that no degrees are actually conferred.

MEChA is expecting 4,000 people--mostly members of large, extended families--to fill the L.A. Tennis Center.

A dozen relatives of Cuauhtli Garcia are coming from San Jose on Sunday. The campus’ commencement for science majors--to which Garcia is also invited--limits her to four guests. So she plans to attend only the Raza Graduation.

“There’s no way I could exclude any members of my family,” Garcia said. “They would be insulted, and I wouldn’t feel right.”

Ethnic Events Are More Personalized

Organizers of the 19th annual All African People’s Graduation are expecting several thousand spectators in Drake Stadium, including perhaps 30 friends and family members of Angele Ralph, a double major in business economics and history.

“My parents are flying in from Canada,” she said, “and I invited my whole church community. I’m the first person in my family to go to college. For me to graduate from here, this is a big deal.”

Kiahnna Patton is going to two official commencements because, she said, “my mom is making me.” But she’s not excited about either official affair.

At the ceremony for psychology majors, she noted, she at least will gain some distinction by walking across the stage and shaking hands with a faculty member as an announcer reads her name. At the larger ceremony for the 1,800 undergraduates getting degrees in the life sciences, such as in psychology and biology, she will simply stand up with all other psychology majors to be recognized en masse.

“They treat you like a number,” Patton said.

In contrast, every graduate at the All African People’s Graduation writes a paragraph-long passage that is read aloud while they traipse across the stage to accept the certificate.

Earlier this week, Patton was camped in front of a computer in the Student Retention Center doing some last-minute editing of her statement, which begins: “This honor belongs to my parents, particularly my mother who has spent 23 years preparing me to be a responsible and independent woman. I love you.”

She added another line, thanking her “boyfriend Tremayne” and her sorority sisters from Alpha Kappa Alpha for supporting her through college.

Patton, like many UCLA students, was furious at Connerly for challenging their ceremonies.

“It’s totally ridiculous,” Patton said. “He thinks that no matter where we come from, we come to college and magically, we’re all the same. We’re not.”