A Colorado-based law firm filed a federal civil-rights complaint last week objecting to a recent “Black” graduation ceremony at the University of California- Berkeley, alleging that the school violated a federal law prohibiting institutions that receive government funding from discriminating based on race.
Mountain States Legal Foundation, whose counsel served in the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education under the Trump administration, is contending that the progressive college flouted Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by holding a ceremony that specifically honors African-American students.
The college’s African-American Studies department coordinates the black graduation, accepting third-party donations through the Black Graduation Fund housed within the department, according to the website.
While the invitation contains the disclaimer that the event is “Open to undergraduates and graduates, African American Studies Majors and Students in All Other Majors and Colleges,” it is explicitly called a “Black Graduation,” the complaint notes.
“I think they’d say, ‘theoretically a white person could come and we wouldn’t turn them away’ but that’s different than saying they’re welcome to participate on equal terms,” lead attorney Will Trachman, who served in the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) under President Trump, told National Review. “There’s no way a non-black student would say ‘Oh, I feel welcome at a ceremony like that and oh I’d like to go on stage and accept a diploma.'”
“The entire event is punctuated by musical performances and speeches curated explicitly for the Black community,” the complaint notes, citing a description of the event printed in an online newsletter that appears to have been removed by the school.
UC-Berkeley declined to comment.
The event is a historical tradition for the school dating back to the 1970s. However, it has expanded dramatically since then, Trachman said.
“Now it’s officially part of the university system…it keeps metastasizing and growing and growing to be more race exclusionary,” he said. “If this were just an event held off campus at someone’s house with no official resources, that would be one thing. But here the school is hosting it, coordinating it, making it happen, making it as big as possible.”
At the most recent ceremony in May, Professor Nikki Jones, the chair of the African American Studies department, lauded the event as a “celebration of students earning degrees from our department and black students from across Berkeley’s campus,” according to a video.
Other Berkeley personnel confirmed that the event was intended primarily for black students. During the May graduation, Cheryl Wright, the president of the Cal Black Alumni Association, ended her speech by congratulating only “University of California Black Berkeley Bears” the complaint says.
Caleb Dawson, a Black feminist socialist who leads the student organization Black Lives at Cal, celebrated the segregated nature of the event, saying “[i]t’s not everyday that we gather with dozens of black undergraduate students, graduate students, black alumni, black staff and black faculty across campus,” the complaint claims.
The law firm is waiting to hear whether its case will be escalated or dismissed. OCR within DOE has internal mechanisms to decide whether it has jurisdiction over a case, Trachman said. From that point, the office generally has about 108 days to make a preliminary move, whether that’s asking for mediation, opening an investigation, speaking to officials from Berkeley, or asking the law firm for additional evidence and to discuss allegations.
In the complaint, the law firm cites an illustrative example in the context of Title IX, which bars sex-based discrimination in programs that receive federal funding. OCR recently published guidance that it had previously reached a resolution with a school that presented “An Award for Student Mothers,” because the title of the award inherently prevented males from applying on equal terms, infringing on Title IX, the complaint claims.
“Dads felt they couldn’t apply to that scholarship,” Trachman said. “Sometimes the title of an event can be so inherently exclusionary that you don’t even need to look further.”
Berkeley’s separate ceremony for Black students is not the first of its kind from the last few years. In April, Grand Valley State University (GVSU) in Michigan hosted five different graduation ceremonies segregated by ethnic background, race, and sexual orientation. An email sent to community members outlined that separate “Graduation Celebrations” would be held for Asian, Black, “Latino/a/x,” Native Americans, and “Lavender” or “LGBTQIA+” students.