With graduation just around the corner, Inside Higher Education recently reported on a disturbing trend at many of our nation’s colleges and universities: affinity graduation celebrations. These are separate commencement ceremonies that are intended to “honor the achievements of students of various identities—racial, ethnic, cultural, sexual and others—who may receive stoles or cords representing their identity that they can wear at graduation, or a certificate to hang beside their diploma.”

While these events may seem like a nice way to celebrate diversity, these exclusionary ceremonies are divisive. Rather than sending students off with a message of common good, affinity graduations do the exact opposite: They send our undergraduates a dangerous message latent with identity politics and division rather than unity and shared experience and community.

The problem with these graduations is that they have become activities run by diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices rather than student-run or privately organized celebrations. Harvard University, for instance, is quick to note that these celebrations are run by its Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. The Harvard DEI office points out that each “affinity celebration started as a student-led effort” but now—as of 2022—“the various ceremonies were centralized under the guidance and support of the Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging.” Moreover, the office’s web page sends an unambiguous message that today there is university-wide support and inertia behind these special ceremonies: “These University-wide celebrations are made possible by the collaboration of the Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging; the DIB Leadership Council; the Council of Deans of Students; the Commencement Office; and students.”

If graduates and their families want to gather around and celebrate various traits, that is welcome. However, affinity graduations are now under the purview of DEI administrators, who are known to promote divisive political messages that are hypocritical to their pursuit of inclusion, and receive financial and administrative support. This sends an unmistakable message to graduates, their families, and the world: Some groups are different and deserve alternative treatment, and that we should focus on what divides us rather than what unites us.

The class of 2023 has a unique story to tell. They were a graduating class whose first year was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and who faced endless interruptions to their pursuit of higher education. The class of 2023 now has a chance to be together again and celebrate overcoming a once-in-a-generation pandemic to obtain their undergraduate degree. Why take away from this unifying message? Why is there a need to promote segregation based on various identities when now is the time to celebrate a shared and truly remarkable achievement in the midst of a global pandemic?

Ironically, when asked about segregation in public schools, the left-wing respondents who promote segregation in these special affinity graduations are more likely to state that segregation is a problem in other educational settings. In 2019, Gallup asked Americans about racial segregation in US public schools. Three-quarters of Democrats (75%) report that segregation is a serious problem compared to 35% of Republicans. It is well known that DEI administrators are almost exclusively left-leaning—a group that on one hand says segregation is a serious problem in K–12 schools but then actively promotes segregation among college and university students. This is hard to accept and reconcile.

Another poll by HarrisX found that a majority of Americans believe that racial segregation is still a problem in the nation and, specifically, that younger respondents are also more likely to believe that racial segregation is an ongoing problem. Seventy-seven percent of those ages 18 to 34 said racial segregation is an issue compared to those over 65, where 60% acknowledged that segregation is a problem. It remains a puzzle, then, why students themselves would want to fracture and not promote a collective sense of achievement.

In short, affinity graduation ceremonies today are not informal gatherings. Rather, they have become extensions of DEI offices that sort and segregate students on the basis of particular traits. These ceremonies promote a message of difference identity isolation rather than actual stories of inclusion and bridging differences which is a central goal of true liberal education.

Celebrating diversity does not have to be a separate affair. A graduating class’s diversity can be a unifying trait and an example of liberal education at work. Higher education can and must do better and promoting a single, shared commencement experience for all students would be a good start.

This article originally appeared in the AEIdeas blog and is reprinted with kind permission from the American Enterprise Institute.