Family members rely on identity-specific graduation celebrations to honor their graduating Bruins’ accomplishments.

Identity-based graduation ceremonies – including the Latinx Celebration and the Samahang Pilipino Student Celebration – seek to honor seniors who share a particular identity, said Lindsey Sambilay, the Pilipinx Graduation Celebration admin coordinator.

However, Sambilay said student-run organizations hosting identity-based graduation ceremonies were instructed to change celebrations’ names by the office of Student Organizations, Leadership & Engagement.

Amid Trump administration attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, several universities have canceled their identity-based graduation ceremonies – including Harvard University and the University of Kentucky.

Planning committees of UCLA identity-based graduations have continued their programs. However, students have expressed fears over their ceremonies being threatened by the Trump administration’s threats against universities that have DEI programs.

“Their fight for their existence and the validation of their existence in the eyes of the university is through our joy and through our celebration,” said Alyssa Cosico, a fourth-year cognitive science student.

For over 50 years, the Latinx Celebration has also historically been called the “Latinx Graduation,” said Alexis Ayala, a fourth-year education and social transformation and labor studies student and the tri-chair of the Latinx celebration at UCLA. But student organizers were told to rename it to the “Latinx Celebration” this spring quarter, they added.

The Latinx Celebration, which is held in Spanish to provide access to non-English speaking students and guests, will see a record-breaking 800 students in attendance, Ayala said.

Student-run admit weekends were also instructed by UCLA’s Diversity Admit Weekend Program to remove exclusive words from their titles – such as removing “admit” from “Latinx Admit Weekend” – and organization names.

[Related: ​​UCLA admitted students’ weekend programs instructed to remove exclusive wording]

Ayala said they are uncertain whether these identity-based graduation ceremonies will be canceled this year.

“I do think there is this idea that it could happen to UCLA as well,” they said. “Anything can happen at the last minute, to be honest, but I’m hopeful.”

The Latinx Celebration student organizers are also concerned about the potential of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity on campus, Ayala added.

ICE has terminated international students’ legal status from U.S. colleges and universities, including legal permanent residents and student visa holders. Over 1,200 international students in the U.S. had their legal status temporarily revoked and then reinstated in April, according to the Associated Press.

[Related: Undocumented students share fears of deportation under second Trump administration]

“It’s a concern we’ve had from students with everything happening, from ICE raids, from what is happening with law enforcement, with what happened a year ago and what continues to happen at a university level from protests,” Ayala said.

Members of Samahang Pilipino host their graduation ceremony at Royce Hall every year, Sambilay said. However, recent funding changes from the Undergraduate Students Association Council threatened the tradition and its June 15 ceremony, she said, adding that she believes the lack of funding is an insult to the organization.

“This funding app that we applied for only gave us $600 in allocation, and the P-grad ceremony itself costs about $22,000,” Sambilay said. “The $600 allocation that the BOD funding gave us barely covers 3% of the total projected expenses that we would need.”

Sambilay said the organization eventually secured adequate funding to host the graduation ceremony.

In a written statement, a UCLA spokesperson said they will continue to support all student celebrations. Although the university is navigating budgetary restrictions, student organizations are still able to find funding sources to support their year-end events, they added in the statement.

“As UCLA hosts one official Commencement and Schools and Departments hold degree-conferring graduations, all other events are considered celebrations of student success and are open to all students,” the spokesperson said.

Despite this success, Sambilay also said she is preparing for a potential decrease in funding for identity-based organizations given the national attacks on DEI, adding that she wants to continue shining light on this issue through USAC public comments, for example.

“As the years go by, we just think that it’s going to get worse,” she said. “Funding is only going to get smaller and smaller, and obviously the prices will rise higher and higher.”

Cosico, a Samahang Pilipino Cultural Night board member, said identity-based graduations allow students to celebrate the community that raised and cared for them throughout their time in college.

“For a lot of us, we could be really new, either first generation or 1.5 generation, where our parents experienced school in the Philippines but don’t know how the U.S. education system works,” she said. “Filipino graduation allows us to celebrate our experiences in a way that we know best.”

Despite challenges, Ayala said they have found it rewarding to collaborate with the planning committee members to represent students from Latin America at the graduation ceremony.

“I’m hopeful,” Ayala said. “I’m staying hopeful just because it’s one of the last things that a lot of our seniors are looking forward to.”