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Plans for pomp create friction at Michigan State
By Erik Lords/Knight Ridder Newspapers
Many black students who will graduate from Michigan State University in East Lansing next month are excited about MSU's first Black Celebratory, an optional ceremony that will honor them for earning a degree.
But the event has not left everyone feeling festive. Critics say the celebratory is unfair and promotes separatism.
In one of several anti-celebratory letters sent to the MSU student newspaper, Michael Cykowski, a senior computer science major, wrote: "What would happen if some students tried to organize an all-white graduation? All hell would break loose. They would be labeled bigots."
Michael Oden, an MSU senior from Detroit, brought the idea to MSU this year after learning about a similar event the University of Michigan has had for about a decade. He says he did not expect resistance.
Nikki O'Brien, MSU's coordinator for African-American Affairs, said black students who participate are not being asked to choose one ceremony over the other; they are encouraged to attend both.
Supporters of the celebratory said many black students are the first in their families to attend college, so the accomplishment takes on greater meaning for them, their relatives and friends.
Another element of the MSU controversy is that the 15-member student programming board of MSU's student government declined a request of about $2,800 for the event, saying it will serve too narrow of an audience.
That rankled some black students, particularly since the association gave about $3,000 to help fund a campus speech by controversial author David Horowitz last month.
Horowitz made national news in 2001 when he paid for dozens of full-page ads in college newspapers titled "10 Reason Why Reparations for Slavery is a Bad Idea and Racist Too." Some college papers, including the State News at MSU and the Michigan Daily at U-M, refused to run the ad.
MSU's Oden, who graduated from Detroit's Cass Tech High School, said the celebratory is needed because many black students from urban areas overcome unique financial and social obstacles to earn a degree and should be recognized for their perseverance. For many students, attending MSU put them into a predominantly white learning environment for the first time in their lives, said the supply chain management major.
The celebratory is scheduled for May 3 on campus. The traditional university-wide commencement ceremony is to take place earlier that day.
MSU has held smaller, less formal celebrations for black seniors since 1993, but organizers did not seek university funding.
O'Brien said the event will bring attention to MSU's black graduation rate, which is among the lowest at the university.
According to MSU's most recent data, 46 percent of black students who entered in 1994 had graduated within six years. During the same time, Hispanic students graduated at a 58-percent rate, Asian and Pacific Islanders at 67 percent and white students at 70 percent.
"There have been some misperceptions about what the celebratory represents," said Lee June, MSU's assistant provost and vice president for student affairs. MSU "is seeking ways to reinforce, congratulate and give special recognition for the accomplishment they've made, given that they are students of color."
John Matlock, an associate vice provost at U-M, said the university holds separate, smaller celebrations for many ethnic groups including Latino, Native American and Jewish students, and that each event highlights the respective group's customs.
The origins of the celebrations vary from campus to campus, but in most cases, it has been students, not university administrators, who asked for them.
At U-M, "if the Polish students came to us and said they want to do something to celebrate their culture, or the Hungarian students came to us, we would do the same thing for them," Matlock said. "This is a reflection of our multicultural campus, and I think it's very healthy."
At most large universities, academic units hold smaller, separate commencement ceremonies to give their graduating seniors and professors a more personalized ceremony.
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