Students plan affinity graduations in just months after University of Texas ban

AUSTIN (KXAN) — After a Texas law banned diversity, equity and inclusion offices at public universities in the state, the University of Texas at Austin canceled several minority graduation events it had previously hosted for several years.

This news was dropped on minority students around three months before the May 8 graduation weekend, leaving those communities to self-organize their own celebrations without any assistance from the school or its faculty.

Katherine Ospina, a UT Austin senior, has worked since February with a small team of other student volunteers to organize Latinx graduation.

“[SB 17] is just barring us from funding barring us from faculty and administrative support, and the ability to rent out any venues within the university,” Ospina said. “We’ve had to get creative with celebrating our Hispanic students, in the fact that our funding has to come from individual donors, corporate donors, or advising. We just don’t have a blueprint — so we’ve been putting on a bunch of different hats.”

Affinity graduations, from Ospina’s perspective, are vital to making minority students feel welcome at an institution like UT. Previously, the Latinx graduation was the only UT Austin graduation event with translation, according to Ospina.

“The university touts itself as Hispanic serving, and it gets federal funding for being a Hispanic serving institution, which means that at least 25% of our student body is Latino or Hispanic,” she said. “It’s crucial for their parents to understand the hard work that they’ve put in. To be able to give [parents] a language of comfort, so that they’re able to be joyful in that is so, so important.”

Ospina and her co-organizers also turned to the Austin City Council for assistance.

“Here you have students who are trying to figure out where they can have a safe space just to celebrate the graduation,” said Austin Council Member Vanessa Fuentes in a prior interview with KXAN . “It’s unfortunate, it’s a misuse of time and misuse of priorities from the state legislature. And quite frankly, it’s frightening to think about that effort and what might come next.”

The Latinx graduation organizers and other student groups received help from UT “ex-students” association Texas Exes, which is hosting two-hour graduation celebrations for graduates and their families.

“The Texas Exes looks forward to celebrating our 2024 graduates and welcoming them to the Alumni Center and the next chapter of their lives. Through these celebrations, we will help new grads get plugged into our Networks, which work year-round to support students and alumni around the world,” said a Texas Exes representative in a statement.

Elizabeth Muench, a UT Austin graduate student, is grateful for assistance from the Exes to set up the Lavender Graduation celebration, which honors LGBTQ+ students. However, that gratitude also comes with feeling disconnected from UT.

“The school obviously isn’t promoting any of these events. They’re not trying to spread the word in any way,” Muench said. “It’s definitely scaled down from past years. Everyone used to walk across the stage. There was a live stream, and it was a whole kind of bigger thing. It’s just a little like smaller scale, which is disappointing.”

Ospina and Muench both said that they hope that their efforts this year will help set up the process for future UT Austin students.

“I think things are just gonna have to be a little more student-led, which is a little annoying because we’re already doing a lot on campus,” Muench said. “I hope that the future planning is smooth and that Texas Exes continues its support.”

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