Michigan State University officials rescheduled the event for next week
A Lunar New Year celebration has been rescheduled for next Tuesday after Michigan State University officials originally canceled the event.
“We deeply regret the disappointment and pain caused by the decision to cancel our Lunar New Year event and the language used to do so,” Dean Heidi Hennink-Kaminski, wrote in an email to staff, according to Bridge Michigan. She is the dean of the College of Communication Arts and Science, which hosts the event.
“We acknowledge that the decision to cancel the event was an overreaction,” Kaminski wrote, along with the college’s DEI director,
DEI Director Lauren Gaines had initially cancelled the event, citing student’s reactions to President Donald Trump’s executive orders curtailing racial discrimination.
“This decision comes in response to concerns shared by members of our community regarding the current issuance of Executive Orders related to immigration and diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Gaines wrote last week, as reported by the student newspaper.
“These actions have prompted feelings of uncertainty and hesitation about gathering for events that highlight cultural traditions and communities,” she wrote, according to State News.
A follow-up email from Dean Hennink-Kaminski last week reiterated that the decision was in reaction to students. However, the student newspaper framed the cancellation, including in two headlines, as being connected to Trump’s executive orders, as if they lead to the suspension of the event.
“MSU college reschedules Lunar New Year event after canceling due to Trump’s anti-DEI orders,” reporter Theo Scheer wrote in his article on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the public university in Lansing is “assembling Rapid Response Teams” to take on President Trump’s policy changes, according to the student newspaper.
“MSU’s Government Relations office is actively monitoring developments at the federal level, working closely with appropriate leadership across the university and coordinating the Rapid Response Teams,” the email from MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz stated.
“In addition, MSU will collaborate with its higher education partners, peer institutions and professional associations to thoughtfully engage with federal policy decision-makers in the coming weeks and months,” the university president wrote.
At least one Michigan State professor feels strongly about Trump’s re-election.
“It is unbelievable to me that so many Americans are so utterly naive and would fall for this and support misogyny, racism, xenophobia, hate, and violence,” psychology Professor Alexa Venema wrote to her students last year after the election.
Veneema told students they, like her, were probably “devastated” and experiencing the “first 4 stages of grief all at once.”
The school said it “had conversations” with Veneema, as previously reported by The College Fix.
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