UPDATE [03/31/2025, 3:00 p.m.] This article has been updated to explain why certain scholarships still comply with university policy.
Among the recent slew of federal executive orders and memos, a Feb. 14 Department of Education memo stated K-12 and higher education institutions cannot use race in decisions across “all” aspects of student life. Institutions risk losing their federal funding if they don’t comply within two weeks, leaving campus leaders unsure how it will affect cultural programs and federal funding.
There are a multitude of organizations and departments at UC Santa Barbara that have an emphasis on supporting underrepresented races and ethnicities. Wesley Haver / Daily Nexus
In 2023, UC Santa Barbara received roughly $257.6 million in federal research funding. Although the University complies with Proposition 209, stating race, ethnicity and gender can’t be used in admissions decisions, some scholarships geared toward students of particular races or ethnicities may fall within the memo’s scope.
The memo states that race cannot be used to decide admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies and “all other aspects of student, academic and campus life.”
University of California (UC) President Michael V. Drake released a letter on Feb. 20 in response, which said that the UC has not used race in its practices.
“UC leadership across the system is working with members of our community to evaluate the potential impact and implications of the letter and will provide updates or guidance as appropriate,” Drake said. “The University of California has been operating under longstanding state law requirements and does not consider race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in our practices.”
The reasoning is based upon Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution and the 2023 Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard that deemed it unconstitutional to use affirmative action in the admissions process.
“Although SFFA addressed admissions decisions, the Supreme Court’s holding applies more broadly,” read the memo written by Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education. “The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent.”
There are a multitude of organizations and departments at UCSB that emphasize supporting underrepresented races and ethnicities such as the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP). Other groups aren’t explicitly barred from using these resources or services, making the effects on departments murky.
Student activism in the late 1960s led to the creation of the EOP at universities across the nation. Its original mission was to recruit, admit and provide support services primarily to “underrepresented minority undergraduates.”
After the passing of Proposition 209 in 1996, the program shifted its emphasis to students from low-income, first-generation backgrounds.
Since 2007, the EOP’s cultural centers at the UCSB Student Resource Building have provided cultural programming and resources for underrepresented groups on campus. The five centers include the African diasporic; American Indian and Indigenous; Asian; Chicanx/Latinx and Middle Eastern, North African, South Asian Cultural Resource Centers.
Although other cultural centers existed on campus before them, the current centers were made possible by further student activism in the late 1990s, including a 1998 takeover of Cheadle Hall.
EOP Director Aaron Jones said the cultural centers are open to all students and the community. It is unclear how the loss of federal funding would impact EOP, since most of its funding comes from the state and student fees, according to Jones.
“All of our spaces are open to the entire undergraduate and even graduate community and to the community at large,” Jones said. “Those spaces are where these particular cultures and identities are celebrated.”
Several scholarships geared toward specific races and ethnicities are facilitated through EOP, such as the Allison Jackson Memorial Scholarship distributed through the African diasporic Cultural Resource Center. It was created by friends and family to honor Allison Lilia Jackson, a future student who was a part of the EOP program and passed the summer before she attended the university.
According to university spokesperson Kiki Reyes, the scholarship is under a “grandfather protection” for scholarship gift funds made before Proposition 209.
The American Indian and Indigenous Cultural Resource Center also offers a scholarship for students affiliated with American Indian, Native Hawaiian or Alaskan Native communities which is funded through the Annual Harvest Dinner Silent Auctions. According to Reyes, this scholarship would also be protected since tribal membership is not considered a racial classification.
Although these scholarships aren’t funded through the University, the memo states institutions must cease reliance on third parties to “circumvent prohibited uses of race.”
“We’ve been in compliance since 1996, so we’re not terribly concerned,” Jones said. “However, we are paying very close attention because of the very broad strokes that that letter and the current administration are engaging into, really in my opinion, terrorize the populace, and particularly those who’ve been historically marginalized.”
It is unclear whether multicultural student organizations on campus will be affected. In an attempt to comply with these new federal policies, the United States Military Academy West Point disbanded several cultural groups at its campus such as the National Society of Black Engineers Club, the Asian-Pacific Forum Club and the Vietnamese-American Cadet Association.
Another aspect of student life the memo touches on is graduations for specific races and ethnicities.
“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,” the memo read.
UCSB holds graduations based around identity, primarily organized by students, including the Comunidad Latinx Graduación (CLG), Black Graduation Ceremony and Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Graduation.
CLG is run by a student board that works throughout the year to garner funds from fundraisers, Associated Students and departments on campus that choose to donate.
According to CLG Co-Chair and fourth-year sociology and feminist studies double major Roxy Virgen Alvarado, roughly 525 to 550 students are signed up to participate in the ceremony this year.
“We reach out to every single department all the way from the chem department to the Chicano/Chicana studies department on campus,” she said. “We have had a fundraiser every single week since week one of fall quarter.”
CLG Co-Chair and fourth-year political science and Chicana and Chicano studies double major Sebastian Manrique said anyone is welcome to join the ceremony. According to the co-chairs, 10,000 to 15,000 guests attend each year.
“Our ceremony is a multiracial ceremony. While we have this emphasis and celebration aspect for Latinx identities, we welcome anyone to join our ceremony, and anyone is welcome to come into our ceremony,” Manrique said.
Alvarado said the term “segregation” in the memo is “dangerous.”
“To say ‘segregation’ is kind of dangerous. I think segregation is not voluntary in any way,” she said. “It’s all voluntary at any point, any student of any ethnicity, any race, any cultural background has every single right to come and be a part of our ceremony. I just think it’s a really dangerous way of formatting [it].”
This year will be the 51st CLG. CLG originated in 1974 after El Congreso members felt like Latine students weren’t being adequately represented in traditional ceremonies. The ceremony is given in both English and Spanish and includes cultural performances like mariachi and Danza Azteca.
“Students here on campus just always want to feel represented, especially in an institution where they feel that it doesn’t represent them, even despite being an HSI [Hispanic Serving Institution] right?” Manrique said.
“So that’s why I think these ceremonies are just as important, I think, in that, we give [students] their final goodbye from an institution that they might not have been represented in,” Manrique continued.
A version of this article appeared on p. 5 of the Feb. 27, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.
