The Collegian

Issue date: 5/12/09 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Gorby Lingad

One of the core Lasallian principles is inclusive community. Though the College encourages the community to strive for this, upcoming events will put the College in a precarious position. Starting this week, there will be four different graduation celebrations geared toward "historically underrepr-esented or traditionally margi-nalized groups," according to the College website, which includes the Asian Pacific American, Black, Latino and LGBTQIA groups.

Why must these groups of people be singled out for celebration? There are no celebrations for cultures that are considered "white," which is unfair. If we are to have such specific graduate celebrations, why not include as many racial and ethnic groups as possible so everyone has a chance to celebrate with a specific culture they identify with?

By recognizing a need to celebrate specific cultural groups, the College is making the mistake of making race or sexual orientation a special concern. Everyone has a culture and it is not fair to ignore them. You do not have to be marginalized to be celebrated. Graduation is a time for all students to celebrate their achievements, experiences and memories from their college careers.

The College website says if anyone "self-identifies or feels a close connection to any one of these student populations is welcome to participate. These ceremonies also symbolize the importance of breaking barriers within higher education for historically underrepr-esented or traditionally marg-inalized groups." Though recognition of hard work and breaking barriers is important, these distinctions draw an invisible line between cultural groups. Such great achievements should be celebrated as a community and not as isolated groups. Despite the open invitation for community members to join in on any of these celebrations, they are not truly inclusive.

To see unintentional hypocrisy around campus is disappointing because these efforts to celebrate "underrepresented groups" coun-ter the good will that is inherent in graduation. Soon-to-be graduates went to college for an education, not to prove a point about race or sexual orientation. Graduation should celebrate students, not crusaders against social barriers. Whatever broken barriers may lie in the wake of our graduates is a byproduct of their decisions to gain more knowledge. This purpose, this goal should be celebrated most highly of any cause. We all have cultures and experiences to share as human beings, so why not celebrate that with everyone?

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