EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Soon-to-be graduates
gathered for a dress rehearsal of the All African People’s
Celebration at the L.A. Tennis Center on June 3. Students may
participate in identity-based events in addition to traditional
graduation ceremonies.
By Scott B. Wong
Daily Bruin Staff
This weekend, UCLA’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender community will unite pink with black ““ colors of
triangles used to identify gays and lesbians in Nazi Germany
““ in the Lavender Celebration to convey the significance of
their graduation as visible LGBT individuals.
The celebration, along with the Iranian Student Group and the
Asian Pacific Islander Celebrations, are examples of the
identity-based graduation ceremonies, which are available in
addition to the traditional, degree-conferring commencement
events.
Thirty graduating students of UCLA’s LGBT community will
participate in Saturday’s Lavender Celebration. Lavender, a
blending of the pink and black, is a celebratory symbol of
remembrance, said Ronni Sanlo, director of the LGBT Resource
Center.
The celebration aims to show participants that they matter at
this institution, said Sanlo, who founded the original Lavender
Celebration at the University of Michigan in 1995. Since then, 18
such celebrations were established across the nation, including
UCLA’s in 1998.
“Students not of the majority feel that they’re not
included in university life,” Sanlo said. “(These)
celebrations tell students not only that their identities are
something of which they can be very proud, but that this
institution is very proud of who they are and what they are going
to become.”
Fifth-year graduating physics student Mary Carnes, who chairs
the All African People’s Graduation committee, said the
celebration was created because oftentimes the needs of the African
American students “were not addressed” at UCLA.
“We do have students not of African descent
participating,” she said. “It’s open to anyone
who wants to celebrate the achievements of African
people.”
During the celebration, 163 graduating participants will perform
a libation to pay tribute to their ancestors, sing the Black
National Anthem and wear a ceremonial kente stole and tassel.
Twenty-eight years ago, students formed La Raza Grad to create a
stronger sense of family among the small Chicano and Latino student
population at UCLA.
“Students felt that the university ceremonies were very
impersonal,” said third-year political science and Chicana/o
studies student Vanessa Sifuentes, co-chair of the Raza Grad
committee.
According to Sifuentes, students plan a bilingual celebration in
English and Spanish to make it culturally relevant to their
families.
For non-English speaking families, graduations can be an
uncomfortable experience because they don’t understand the
words of the commencement speakers, Sifuentes said.
Sanlo said she doesn’t look at the Lavender Celebration as
an alternative or replacement graduation, but an enhancement to
traditional ceremonies.
“We changed our time this year because we don’t want
to conflict with any ceremony which any of our participants will be
a part of,” Sanlo said. “It’s very important that
if students wish to attend the institution’s ceremony, they
certainly should do so.”
This year, the Lavender Celebration won’t feature special
guest speakers, since students asked to address the graduating
class, Sanlo said. Vox Femina Los Angeles, a lesbian/bisexual
women’s chorus, will sing at the celebration.
Lavender graduates will receive a rainbow tassel and certificate
of distinction to commemorate their survival through college, she
said.
Graduates of the All African People’s celebration, hosted
by the African Student Union, will have their name read along with
a 25-word personal message to their friends and family.
In addition, the traditional “Pomp and Circumstance”
song will be replaced by songs from the “Panther” movie
soundtrack.
The celebration will include a key-note address by Congresswoman
Juanita Millinder-McDonald, D-Calif.
Raza Grad will assume the form of a cultural extravaganza, with
drumming, Andean music and indigenous dancers who will bless the
ceremony.
Though 360 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students will
participate in Raza Grad, Sifuentes said this and other ethnic
celebrations have allocated the university’s
“left-over” time slots.
Students who wish to attend the ASU and Raza celebrations are
unable to do so because the events coincide Sunday afternoon.
In addition, the date and time of the celebrations, which are
scheduled after all university ceremonies, put a strain on family
members who must return to work Monday morning, Sifuentes said.
“We were placed at the end of the list because we are
student-initiated and student-run,” she said.
In previous years, Carnes said, about 4,000 people attended the
celebration. This year organizers will issue tickets for the
celebration to obtain a more realistic figure for future funding
purposes.
Carnes attributed the decrease in graduate participants to SP-1,
which eliminated affirmative action in university admissions in
1995.
“The fewer African American students that are admitted has
resulted in a decrease in the number of students that are
matriculating,” Carnes said.
Janice Quindara, a third-year sociology student, who serves on
the Pilipino Graduation committee, said the celebration shows that
the university is retaining Pilipino students through programs like
Samahang Pilipino Education and Retention.
“(Pilipino) retention rates are not as high as other
groups,” said Quindara, who is also Samahang Pilipino’s
president-elect. “Ethnic graduation is a good way to show
that Pilipino students are graduating from higher
education.”
Each of the 100 graduates will be allowed a 30-second speech to
acknowledge friends and parents whose support and hard work paid
for university tuition, Quindara said.
“A lot of (graduates) are the first in their families to
go to college,” she said. “Support and encouragement
from their families are their motivation to graduate.”
Many students on campus choose to make the various
identity-based celebrations their only graduation ceremonies.
“We provide a ceremony in which students experience
something very positive and very loving as their last thing at
UCLA, especially when many of their experiences were not so
positive and loving,” Sanlo said.
For more information on graduation ceremonies, visit the Web
site at www.commencement.ucla.edu.