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Harvard will no longer host or fund affinity group celebrations during Commencement, the University’s former diversity office wrote in an email to affinity groups on Monday afternoon.

The decision comes months after the U.S. Department of Education threatened another wave of funding cuts if the University did not cancel graduation celebrations that might separate students based on race.

Though the email was sent from an email address belonging to Harvard’s Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, the office was renamed “Community and Campus Life” hours before, according to an email from Sherri A. Charleston — the University’s chief Community and Campus Life officer, formerly Harvard’s chief diversity officer.

Since the Education Department’s threat — and amid several other ensuing battles with the Trump administration over diversity programing and funding — Harvard officials had left affinity groups in the dark for weeks about Commencement planning for affinity events before the Monday email.

Last year, Harvard hosted ten affinity celebrations for the Class of 2024, including for Arab, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, first-generation, low-income, and Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Desi graduates. The events — some of which drew more than 1,000 people from across Harvard’s schools last year — typically feature awards and speeches from students, faculty, and administrators.

The Education Department letter did not address affinity celebrations not based on race, including events for LGBTQ graduates, Jewish graduates, veterans, and graduates with disabilities. And the Harvard email on Monday did not specify which events would no longer be permitted on campus.

University spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote in an emailed statement following the letter that Harvard “is reviewing the FAQs that were issued on February 28 by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.”

“Harvard remains committed to building a community where individuals who bring a broad array backgrounds, experiences and perspectives come together to learn, grow and thrive, and equally committed to complying with the law,” he wrote.

Newton argued in a March 3 email that the University had never hosted the celebrations.

On Monday, the unsigned OEDIB email said that affinity groups would no longer receive “funding, staffing, or spaces for affinity celebrations.”

“We stand ready to address questions or concerns you may have during this transition,” it read.

The office also wrote that it would schedule one-on-one conversations with students previously involved in planning affinity celebrations.

In two April letters to Harvard, federal agencies conditioned billions in dollars of federal funding on dismantling DEI programming. Harvard rejected the demands, and lost $2.2 billion in federal funding. Harvard sued the Trump administration over the funding cuts on April 20, alleging the White House had launched an unconstitutional campaign against the University.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.