The cancellations came in response to pressure from the state and federal government to roll back DEI policies and practices, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
The events impacted include the Office of LGBTQ+ Resources’ Lavender Graduation ceremony and ceremonies for Black and first-generation students.
Jay Stringer-Vaught, a graduate student studying library sciences at UK, said they are one of seven students who were taking part in the Lavender Graduation ceremony until it was cancelled.
“This kind of felt like a slap in the face,” Stringer-Vaught said. “It felt like the university was saying ‘we’ll accept your gay dollars, but we’re not going to say thank you.’”
In response, Stringer-Vaught said the Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church and a number of other community groups are organizing their own graduation event honoring minority students called Community Commencement.
Matthew Falco, senior pastor at the church, said graduations can be more than a degree for a lot of first-generation and minority students.
“Often, many of them (minority students) face discrimination and unsupportive environments, perhaps it was their first time going to school,” Falco said. “We recognize that overcoming those kinds of obstacles warrant recognition and we wanted to honor them.”
Falco said there will be a number of speakers at the event and students will be recognized individually.
UK’s historically Black Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity chapter Epsilon Chi is also holding its own graduation event called Senior Salute.
Assistant District Director Kristopher Washington said the event will be a “graduation before graduation” to let people know about the diversity of UK’s campus and highlight the history and accomplishments of its students.
“In this way, people get to stand out and show everybody where they come from,” Washington said. “It’s to let people know that ‘yes, I went to this school and I overcame these obstacles . . . I made it to this place and people like me can make it here and do these things as well.’”
Washington said the fraternity had anticipated the cancellation of different graduation events after other diversity programs were shut down.
Admission to Senior Salute is free. Chapter president Pierre Petit’frere said he encouraged anyone and everyone to attend the event.
“The world is changing around us, it may effect more than just us in the moment, it effects everybody else in the future generation,” Petit’frere said.
In the midst of UK’s silence and its cancellations, Jay Stringer-Vaught said they saw a flood of support from the community.
“I certainly feel loved by Lexington,” Stringer-Vaught said. “I wish the university would extend that same loving embrace, but I will say that Lexington has stepped up to say ‘this is wrong, we love our students and we want to celebrate our students.’”
The Senior Salute is taking place on May 7 at 7 p.m. in the Lyric Theater. Questions can be emailed to ukalphas65@gmail.com.
The Community Commencement is on May 2 at 6:30 p.m. at the Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church. Admission is free for all. More information can be found at maxpres.org.