Lavender Graduation Q&A with Maria Merrill

Jun 27, 2023

Pride Month is a special time of the year to celebrate Xavier’s queer students, but Lavender Graduation – an additional ceremony that occurs outside of June – offers the scholars the opportunity to openly celebrate their identities and academic efforts.

Originating at the University of Michigan in 1995, Lavender Graduation was founded by Dr. Ronni Sanlo, who was hired by the University to direct its Spectrum Center. The ceremony started as a way for queer students who expressed dissatisfaction with their college experience to look back on their final college event in a more positive light.

Since its formation, over 200 colleges and universities have hosted a Lavender Gradation. In 2022, Xavier joined several Jesuit institutions, including Boston College, Georgetown, Holy Cross, and Seattle University, in celebrating the accomplishments of its queer community. Before she was Xavier’s Assistant Director of LGBTQ+ Affairs for the Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI), Maria Merrill established a Lavender Graduation at her previous university. Learn more about the significance of Xavier’s Lavender Graduation ceremony with Maria in this Q&A.

Why have a Lavender Graduation?

It started as a way to celebrate the success of queer students in a way that they did not always feel they were able to do at traditional graduations and commencements. It gave them a space to be their whole self and celebrate all of their identities. Oftentimes, students are not out to their families, so they do not feel that traditional commencements are the places where they could share that identity broadly. For example, if students wore a rainbow or lavender cord, their parents might ask what that is about which could lead to a potentially harmful conversation on a day meant for celebration. Lavender Graduation gives queer graduates a moment of celebration with their peers as well as staff and faculty that have helped them along their Xavier Journey.

Why was it important to start one at Xavier?

There are many reasons. On the most basic level, we needed a space to celebrate the accomplishments of our graduating LGBTQ+ students. Xavier used to have a program called the Inclusive Excellence Celebration, hosted by the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, which functioned as a Lavender Graduation, Multicultural Graduation, seniors’ celebration, and many other things. It was always at the end of the year but only included students who had been on executive boards for student organizations that the CDI advised. As result, there was a gap in celebrating all of our diverse students on campus that the CDI serves. We recognized a need to do better and created Lavender Graduation, and Multicultural Graduation, as a way to fill this need. Now, regardless of whether an LGBTQ+ student has been connected to our space over their time at Xavier, there is still a moment for them.

We also see that student demographics are changing nationally. When we look at averages, it is somewhere between 18 and 21% of college students who are queer or trans. That is 20% of college students. So having a moment to celebrate them has been exciting.

Lastly, Lavender Graduation is a marker on Campus Pride Index, which is a 260-question index that reviews our policies on campus for queer students, staff, and faculty. When we think about how Xavier can increase our score, Lavender Graduation became a tangible, celebration action we could take to tell current – and future – Xavier students that we want to celebrate them as part of our community.

What happens at Xavier’s Lavender Graduation ceremonies?

Our inaugural Lavender Graduation took place in 2022, and we wanted a familial setting, so we opted for brunch instead of a more formal dinner. We told students they could wear whatever felt true and affirming to them in their gender expression – and encouraged all attendees to wear purple in celebration. There were 14 graduates in total. This year, that number nearly doubled as we celebrated the successful graduation of 25 students.

Last year, we only had three of the four colleges represented and this year we had graduates from all four which was a huge personal achievement. This year’s graduating class had a collective cumulative GPA of 3.51 - 4 of which graduated Summa Cum Laude. We also had student speakers this year. The first speaker, Jada Michelle Batacan, gave a senior reflection and Jackson Hare, the recipient of the 2023 Authentic Leader Scholarship, gave a speech as well. We also called the names of graduates this year so they each had a moment of their own which was really special. Overall, it really was a fantastic event.

How does hosting Lavender Graduation support our Jesuit values?

It gets at cura personalis, caring for the whole person, in a big way. If we do not know the whole person, we can’t care for the whole person. That is the root of my work in CDI. Students come in thinking they know themselves and who their whole person is – sometimes that is true and sometimes that is not so true. We get to be there alongside them for their journey at Xavier and then celebrate with them at the end.

The work of our office certainly fits into more values than that, but cura personalis encourages students to know who they are, believe in who they are, and care for themselves. Some of our staff and faculty get to see bits and pieces. For example, professors will get to see a certain semester of growth for a student. When we can see the full four, five, or six years of a student’s growth, that’s icing on the cake.

How can the Xavier Family support Lavender Graduation?

One thing our community can certainly do is donate. If we continue to grow in the same way, we will need to think about a new space and offer more ways to celebrate our students. The other thing that we do at Lavender Graduation is that we celebrate the Authentic Leader Scholarship winner. The scholarship was started by two LGBTQ+ Xavier graduates and is the first of its kind as an endowed scholarship at a Jesuit school specifically for LGBTQ+ students. Our community can always donate to that scholarship.

Another way our community can support Lavender Graduation is by attending. This year there was one non-graduating student in attendance that was overwhelmed by the number of people present in support of the event. When it was over, they came up to me and said, “I didn’t know that this event was like the who’s who of campus! I saw this staff person and this faculty member, and I caught up with this person.” They had an excitement. They are only a sophomore, but they are already looking forward to participating in two years because they know all these people are going to be there for them. That was a cool moment to see through a student’s lens about the importance of presence.

Anything else we should know about Lavender Graduation?

It truly is an amazing event, and while I’m excited to be the person that started this at Xavier, I want our community to have the same enthusiasm and excitement for it down the road when I’m off on new adventures. I want us all to be thinking long-term about Lavender Graduation and how we can continue to institutionalize it as part of Commencement Week in a way that if I ever decide to get my doctorate here down the road, I can participate in it, too. Let’s make it stick.