Students stunned by the cancellation of their Lunar New Year celebration went ahead with the festivities as planned.
The Bridge in Michigan reported Michigan State University rescinded the cancellation, calling it an “overreaction” to the Trump ban on diversity, equity and inclusion.
“We deeply regret the disappointment and pain caused by the decision to cancel our Lunar New Year event and the language used to do so,” Dean Heidi Hennink-Kaminski said in an email co-written by DEI director Lauren Gaines.
“We acknowledge that the decision to cancel the event was an overreaction.”
The Asian Pacific American Student Organization said the original cancellation is reason “that we should be afraid” of Trump’s stance on DEI and immigration.
“They should have kept going with the event,” said APASO President Michael Oriyavong, 21. “We should be allowed to express ourselves — our identity is something that we should not hide,” he said in a statement quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle and posted on Instagram.
The National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education says Trump’s executive order on DEI has caused both confusion and uncertainty among school’s fearful of potentially losing their federal funding.
“They have to balance legal compliance with what I think is a fundamental commitment to prepare students for what we know is an increasingly diverse and global society,” said the group’s president Paulette Granberry Russsell.
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