Federal DEI threats hit Rider graduations, scholarships

By Jake Tiger

Rider and its student-led identity groups began to feel the effects of the federal government’s actions against diversity, equity and inclusion, as the academic year ends with changes to pre-graduation ceremonies on campus and a reevaluation of certain scholarships at the university.

Rider’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion hosted a Ceremony of Unity, Legacy and Achievement on April 30, which Chief Diversity Officer Heeyoung Kim called a “re-envisioning” of what was formerly known as Rider’s Multicultural Pre-Commencement amid the federal Department of Education’s targeting of DEI-related graduation ceremonies under President Donald Trump. 

The event has taken place since 2022, and was originally conceived in 2020 pre-COVID by identity-based student clubs and organizations, according to an April 2024 email promoting the event. 

“When we were trying to rethink about the ceremony … and what we can do to support our students, [it was] either don’t do it, do it and get hit, or how can we actually use this opportunity to uplift our students?” Kim said. “We absolutely did not want to stop [the ceremony]. … We want to make sure we support all of the students who have some struggle in their life.”

In an Feb. 25 interview with The Rider News, Rider President Gregory Dell’Omo said the current federal administration was using a “reverse discrimination argument” to justify its stance, claiming that preferential treatment of any kind on the basis of identity was unconstitutional.

In another Rider News interview on April 14, Dell’Omo said, “Not only [are the demands] a dramatic change from what had been in place for a long time, and a very quick change, [there is a] lack of clarity … and lack of legal status.”

On April 22, Dell’Omo signed onto a joint statement with over 220 university leaders, opposing the Trump administration’s treatment of colleges and universities and threats to remove federal funding.

The Department of Education’s Feb. 14 “Dear Colleague” letter, which sparked the nationwide uncertainty at institutions of higher education, reads, “In a shameful echo of a darker period in this country’s history, many American schools and universities even encourage segregation by race at graduation ceremonies and in dormitories and other facilities.”

Dell’Omo told The Rider News on April 22, “The long-term ramifications of many of the changes being presented by the Trump administration are much too important and serious to go unchallenged. I wholeheartedly join in supporting the message presented in the … letter.”

In previous years, Multicultural Pre-Commencement was traditionally for Rider’s graduating students of color, with the goal of acknowledging the specific obstacles they overcame to reach graduation. The CDI’s 2024 universitywide emails about the ceremony called it a “rite of passage.”

Now, the ceremony, with a more general name, is open to all students regardless how they identify, and celebrates anyone who faced adversity, whether it be a disability, discrimination or financial barriers, according to Kim.

In the wake of the “Dear Colleague” letter, Kim said she met with CDI Director Jasmine Johnson, Student Affairs Vice President Nick Barbati and former Provost DonnaJean Fredeen to discuss how the pre-commencement ceremony should be changed to comply with the new regulations.

Johnson primarily drove the ceremony’s reimagining, and given the short amount of time she had, she said she was happy with how things turned out: “We know the political climate right now … but I think it was also an area of growth and improvement a little bit too, where we said, ‘How can we re-envision this a little bit?’ Fresh ideas are a good thing.”

The ceremony was split into two sections: an initial indoor portion in the Cavalla Room, where speeches were given and students were corded, and an outdoor portion in front of P.J. Ciambelli Hall, where the soon-to-be graduates touched the Rider Rock and passed a flickering, electric candle to a spectator. The “legacy candles” symbolized the values highlighted by the ceremony, and the responsibility of carrying them forward.

Spectrum Pride Alliance’s Lavender Graduation also received a name change, now dubbed an end-of-year dessert reception that honored seniors. 

While they were aware of the current political climate when making their decisions, Barbati, Spectrum’s adviser, and outgoing Spectrum President Lianne Litchfield, a senior film and television major, both said Lavender Graduation’s name change was more a matter of happenstance than a deliberate attempt to comply with the “Dear Colleague” letter.

On the federal actions against DEI, Litchfield said, “As soon as the DEI cutbacks started, that opened a lot of doors for where Spectrum is vulnerable. … We’ve always been very aware of the vulnerability, but it wasn’t something that we really had to think about, like, ‘Oh my God, this could be the moment where that vulnerability is taken advantage of.’”

Barbati said Spectrum had wanted to rework the name of Lavender Graduation for some time to better indicate that it was “more of a party” and not a separate, formal graduation for Rider’s LGBTQIA+ students.

Like similar events, communications about the 2025 dessert reception did not use identifying terms, like LGBTQIA+, when they had been used in prior years.

Barbati said, “It is a very difficult time to be a student-leader for an identity-based organization.”

The Black Student Union’s Kente Graduation on May 2, where senior members received their Kente-cloth stoles, was also renamed, now called “Kente Celebration.”

In an email to The Rider News, senior business administration major Desiree Pitt, president of Rider’s Black Student Union, said the new name was the only change to the ceremony, as the group’s events have always been open to all.

“Our events are typically based around the Black experience, but I love when students of other races come to support because they come to learn about our culture and history while having a good time,” Pitt said over email.

There were also changes to the language used when promoting Kente Celebration. An April 2024 email inviting the community to Kente Graduation reads, “The Kente cloth tradition itself holds broader value to people of African descent living outside of the continent, displayed in honor of their ancestral heritage or as a symbol of overcoming their struggles.”

This year’s emails from the CDI promoting Kente Celebration call the stoles “a symbol of pride, achievement, and cultural heritage,” and terms, like Black or African American, were not used.

According to reporting from Inside Higher Ed, some institutions have completely canceled certain identity-based graduation ceremonies in response to recent DEI cutbacks. As a result, local, off-campus events sprung up for these groups.

In Utah, a private Lavender Graduation was held by Project Rainbow Utah after cancellations at various schools in the state, according to Inside Higher Ed. The ceremony was not publicized to avoid potential protests or the event being shut down.

According to WHAS11, an ABC station in Louisville, Kentucky, a local church hosted a citywide celebration for Black graduates after the University of Louisville and Bellarmine University both cancelled planned Black graduations.

On April 14, Dell’Omo told The Rider News that the university was reevaluating its identity-based scholarships, one of multiple resources the federal government claimed to be discriminatory and is seeking to axe.

With the new restrictions, Dell’Omo said institutions could no longer give out scholarships based on race, gender, disability or ethnicity; however, awards based on nationality were still allowed. 

For example, he said Rider would not be able to give a scholarship to a student because they were Armenian, but it could give one to a student who is from Armenia—a small, yet critical distinction that skirts the crackdowns.

“It gets to that level of detail,” Dell’Omo said, “and you just have to go through each one and make a judgement call.”

One of the challenges in this process of amending scholarships is that often the funds are restricted, meaning they were donated to the university for one particular purpose. In order to clear these changes, Rider must contact each donor for approval, according to Dell’Omo.

Dell’Omo said some of the donors have passed away since making their contributions so the university must go through “other mechanisms” to get permission to make any changes it sees fit.

On May 13, Enrollment Management Vice President Drew Aromando said, “[The university is] going through [the scholarships], making sure we’re following the donors wishes the best we can, but doing what needs to be done in the world today or what is expected of us. Our job, at the end of the day, is to make sure we’re making all of that work.”

Armando said that he had not made any changes to the scholarships in 2025, and historical parameters were followed when awarding funds.

Dell’Omo said, “[Diversity] adds an enrichment to the learning process when you have diverse ideas. … Some parts of our society don’t feel that way. Hopefully, Rider continues in that regard, and I think they will.”