Institutions demonstrate their value and encouragement of students and encourage students when they "underscore the importance of student life through symbolic action." (Kuh, Schuh, Whitt, Andreas, Lyons, Strange, Krehbiel, MacKay, 1991, p. 360). Such symbolic actions include the culminating ceremonies, or commencement, that occurs to some extent at the end of each academic term. In addition to institution commencement ceremonies, students at many colleges and universities acknowledge both their academic achievements and their cultural heritages at specialized celebrations usually based on specific ethnic identities (Weiss, 1998).

Many of these events are student-initiated and occur during the university-wide commencement weekend in the spring. They are "designed to provide a sense of community for minority students who, they say, often reel from culture shock" at their impersonalized institutions" (Weiss, 1998, p. A1). For many students these specialized events are the reward for staying in school despite isolation, marginalization, and struggle.

Institutions should "generate feelings of loyalty and a sense of specialness" (Kuh, et al., 1991, p. 363) to encourage student involvement. Kuh, et al. (1991, p. 196) noted that celebrations are "ways to make students feel at home." They tend to increase cultural awareness, and "maintain a high quality of student life in what might otherwise be a fragmented and anonymous environment" (p. 213-214).

Ceremonies and Celebrations

Kuh, et al. (1991, p. 212) stated that ceremonies "integrate the academic with the non-academic in ways that celebrate the total experience of students. Chickering and Reisser (1993) agreed, noting that ceremonies acknowledge accomplishments and celebrate relationships. In fact, Chickering and Reisser passionately described culminating ceremonies as those times when faculty and staff come together collaboratively to "refocus on the individual student, who is more precious than any publication, more complex than any curriculum, and more worthy of our attention than an committee work" (p. 453).

Students matter. Mattering, according to Wolf-Wendel and Ruel (1999, p. 44), "suggests that students must feel appreciated for who they are and what they do." When students are involved and when they feel cared for, they tend to have higher retention rates and develop institutional loyalty (Wolf-Wendel & Ruel, 1999). Ortiz (1999, p. 47), too, noted that a key to retention, achievement, and "institutional persistence and livelihood" was deeply integrated with students' ability to identify with their institutions. Alumni who were involved as students are far more likely to give back to the institution (Ortiz, 1999).

Ceremonies and celebrations are ways in which institutions show students they matter. Many students who are historically underrepresented, or who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT), are now coming to campus expecting consideration of their differences and of their unique needs (Chickering & Kytle, 1999; Sanlo, 1998), and, like other students, should be celebrated for their contributions as well as their academic achievements (Kuh, et al., 1991).

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students

College students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender often have a difficult time fitting into the mainstream of college life throughout their college careers (Sanlo, 1998; Sanlo, Rankin, & Schoenberg, in press; Wall & Evans, 2000). Even at the most liberal of institutions, LGBT students are an invisible population, often forgotten at best and summarily rejected at worst (Sanlo, 1998). Few institutions acknowledge the existence of LGBT students and even fewer celebrate the achievements of this population.

There are no data that describe positive celebratory events in the lives of LGBT college students. An exhaustive review of the literature revealed no research regarding programs that address the achievements of LGBT students regardless of race or ethnicity. There are some data regarding the psychological and safety needs of LGBT college students (D'Augelli, 1989; D'Emilio, 1990; Evans & Wall, 1991; McNaron, 1991; Shepard, Yeskell, & Outcalt, 1995; Sanlo, 1998; Sanlo, Rankin, & Schoenberg, in press; Wall & Evans, 2000), yet there is little research on the full array of LGBT issues among college students in general and nothing that discusses retention and achievement of LGBT students. As an example, Baxter Magolda (1992) and others have written about college students' "ways of knowing," but no one to date has researched the specific ways of knowing or learning among LGBT students.

There is also scant literature that describes celebratory experiences in LGBT culture (Riddiough, 1980; Browning, 1993). Most LGBT students experience the culture of their racial, ethnic, national, or religious backgrounds during institution- or student-sponsored celebratory events, but they rarely, if ever, experience a university-supported celebration directly associated with their lives and contributions as LGBT people and as LGBT students.

In the past five years, at a small number of institutions around the country, the lives and achievements of LGBT students finally are being celebrated at an event called Lavender Graduation. Once Lavender Graduation is hosted on a campus, it seems to become an event to which LGBT students look forward, where they share not only their hopes and dreams with one another, but also where they are recognized officially by the institution for their leadership and their successes.

Origins of Lavender Graduation: Documenting a New History

In the spring of 1995, while working as the director of the LGBT Campus Resource Center at the University of Michigan, I realized that LGBT students needed and, in fact, deserved to be recognized not just for their achievements but for actually surviving their college years. As commencement activities were being planned, I saw an opportunity to include LGBT students in the celebratory process. Many of the ethnic student groups were hosting their own cultural ceremonies in addition to the university's commencement, so why not something for LGBT students? A number of LGBT students said that because of their sexual orientations or gender identities and the struggles they experienced, they felt no connection to the institution nor to their various ethnic groups to want to participate in any of the commencement ceremonies. Their journeys through college as LGBT women and men had been painful enough, they said; they just wanted to leave quickly and quietly.

I happen to be a Jewish lesbian. I love rituals and celebrations and family, but I was not allowed to participate in my own biological children's graduation celebrations because of my sexual orientation, and I felt a pain similar to that of my students. With the encouragement of Royster Harper, then associate vice president for student affairs at Michigan, I designed a celebration just for LGBT students. We called it Lavender Graduation.

The color lavender is important to LGBT history. It is the color combination of the pink triangle that gay men were forced to wear in concentration camps in Nazi Germany and the black triangle that Nazis used to designate lesbians as political prisoners (Heger, 1980; Schoppmann, 1996). The LGBT civil rights movement took these symbols of hatred and combined them to make symbols and colors of pride and community. It was with this sense of pride that I named the event Lavender Graduation.

There were only five graduates and three attendees--a total of eight people!--at that first Lavender Graduation in 1995 at Michigan. Although Lavender Graduation was a great idea, students said, it was just too frightening, too visible a ceremony for them to feel comfortable in attending. But in 1996 several more students participated, and by 1997, there were 18 graduates and nearly 100 people in attendance including parents of some of the graduates. The speakers included both the vice president and associate vice president for student affairs.

When I became the director of the UCLA LGBT Campus Resource Center in September of 1997, I announced that we would host UCLA's first Lavender Graduation during the 1998 spring commencement weekend. There were 23 graduates and nearly 300 people in attendance. The numbers were similar for the 1999 ceremony.

Word of Lavender Graduation spread, especially among the members of the National Consortium of Directors of LGBT Resources in Higher Education. By 1997 five other campuses had initiated Lavender Graduation ceremonies, and by 1998 at least eight other institutions hosted such celebrations. In the spring of 1999, 18 institutions sponsored Lavender Graduations.

Lavender Graduation is designed to support an institution's mission of excellent service that embraces, enhances, and celebrates the academic achievement of LGBT students. It is a cultural celebration that recognizes LGBT students of all races and ethnicities and acknowledges their achievements and contributions to the university. Through such recognition LGBT students leave the institution with a positive last experience thereby possibly encouraging them to become involved mentors for future students as well as financially contributing alumni.

Description of the Event, or, How Do We Do It?

Lavender Graduation provides a collaborative opportunity throughout the university community to bring people together to recognize LGBT students. At UCLA, Lavender Graduation is developed and presented by the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Campus Resource Center in collaboration with the LGBT Studies Department, the LGBT Faculty-Staff Network, the Lambda Alumni Association, and all of the LGBT student organizations. In addition, the Los Angeles and Ventura PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) chapters also co-sponsor the event.

In the 1998 ceremony, volunteers from many ethnic backgrounds participated in the preparation of the event, especially as advertisements were developed, arrangements made, invitations created, and speakers, musicians, and dignitaries invited. Student affairs professionals, including senior officers, were involved by advertising the event to their various units, departments, and students, and by attending and showing their support. Speakers included campus and political dignitaries. At the 1999 Lavender Graduation local and state dignities brought greetings to the graduates and their families.

As the celebrations began, faculty and staff processed into the auditorium wearing the robes associated with their degrees while families and friends of the graduates stood in welcome. Following the entrance of faculty and staff, graduating students processed to their seats to the music of Vox Femina Women's Chorus. Greetings and speeches were offered and student leadership awards were presented. Graduates with a minor in LGBT Studies received a certificate for the completion of that program. All graduating students received a rainbow tassel for their caps as well as a Certificate of Distinction that read:

On the occasion of the second UCLA Lavender Graduation ceremony, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Campus Resource Center awards this Certificate of Distinction for outstanding contributions to our community as a scholar and a person of pride, integrity, and honor, to Joe Gay Bruin on this June 19th, 1999. A reception for the graduates, their families, friends, and guests followed.

Beyond the Smiles, How Did We Know It was a Success?

Graduating students and audience members, many of whom were students who had not yet graduated, were asked, through surveys placed on each chair, about their reaction to Lavender Graduation and suggestions for future celebrations. The open-ended questions were: If you are a graduate, what was the event like for you?; If you are not yet graduating, how did you felt about this event?; If you are a family member or a non-student friend of a graduate, how did you feel about this event? The data were collected by the LGBT Campus Resource Center. Most of the responses were quite poignant.

Three themes emerged from the evaluation forms. First, graduating students reported that the event was positive for them. For example, one student reported, "It was so inspiring and affirming. I loved it! Thanks for a wonderful memory." Another student wrote, "My parents are here today. There's no place else I could take them that celebrates who I am in such an affirmative way. Thank you!" Yet another wrote, "I felt very honored to be part of the Lavender Graduation." An international student who was graduating reported, "It felt great being here. I felt like my work was worth it, that I finally counted here."

A second theme that emerged from the evaluations was that this ceremony instilled pride in students who will gradate in the future. A student wrote, "This was so encouraging. I can't wait until my own Lavender Graduation in two years." Events such as this demonstrate that students matter to their institution, a message not always historically communicated to LGBT students. One student described the situation this way: "It was like magic. Who would have thought that such an event would take place here as an official UCLA commencement?" A first year student wrote, "This was so fantastic! I got chills! I'll be there when I graduate."

The third theme had to do with the positive reactions of non-students participants including family and friends. One person wrote, "I'm here because I wanted to support and congratulate my friends." One graduate's mother responded by saying the event was "Totally inspirational!" Lavender Graduation communicated to that students they mattered.

Implications and Suggestions for Practice

Since LGBT students cross all lines of race, nationality, ethnicity, gender, ability, and socioeconomics, this celebration provides a unique opportunity to present a truly multicultural event while acknowledging a population of students who often succumb to the plight of invisibility on their campuses. This is an opportunity for institutions to let LGBT students know that their achievements, activities, leadership, and scholarship are duly noted and their special gifts are appreciated. It is an opportunity for institutions to provide a graceful exit for students while wishing them well and inviting them to return. While this is also an opportunity to develop an entire cadre of giving alumni, of tapping into a huge financial pool that remains heretofore virtually untouched, it is, more importantly, an opportunity to tell LGBT students they matter.

Suggestions for Further Research

Lavender Graduation is a wonderful, heartfelt event that is received positively by students, their families, and the campus community. What remains unknown are the long term effects on the graduates and others who attended. Will LGBT graduates actually become active alumni and mentors as a result of having Lavender Graduation as part of their college experience? Will non-graduating students who attended Lavender Graduation be encouraged to persist as a result of such a validating experience? Will LGBT high school students who attended Lavender Graduation be encouraged to attend college as a result? Will parents who attended take a more supportive role in the lives of their LGBT children? Lavender Graduation is an event that offers an entirely new avenue of exploration about the lives of LGBT college students.

My vision is that Lavender Graduation will one day become an annual event at every major institution in the country, honoring the lives and achievements of LGBT college students. These students are truly gifts to us, as all of our students are, and indeed they all matter.

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Special thanks to Curt Shepard for his vision of what this work could be.

Citation:

Sanlo, R. ( 2000, Nov/Dec). Lavender Graduation: Acknowledging the Lives and Achievement of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender College Students. Journal of College Student Development, Vol 41, No 6. pp. 643-647.