Texas University Cancelling Racist 'Cultural Graduations' - About Time

Merriam-Webster defines "principles" thusly:

a: a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption
b(1): a rule or code of conduct
(2): habitual devotion to right principles
a man of principle
c: the laws or facts of nature underlying the working of an artificial device

The first definition (a) applies to matters of public policy. Principles are usually pretty ironclad; if a thing is wrong, it is wrong in any circumstance.

This brings us to the University of Texas/Austin canceling "cultural graduations" and other such exclusionary events.

University of Texas at Austin (UT) announced that they are canceling cultural graduations due to the Lone Star State’s recent law banning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices.
UT sent an email last week saying that they will cease funding cultural graduation ceremonies, according to the Daily Texan.
Senate Bill 17, which went into effect this month, affects DEI offices and programs at public colleges and universities across the state.
Their decision came after the university’s Multicultural Engagement Center (MEC) was closed in compliance with the state’s law shutting down DEI offices. The closure of the Multicultural Engagement Center impacted their Black Graduation, Latinx Graduation, and GraduAsian ceremonies.

Here's how you discern politics from principles: You put the shoe on the other foot. In other words, if it is acceptable to have a "Black Graduation" or a "Latinx Graduation," presumably exclusive to people in those groups, then it is acceptable to have a "White Graduation" — A "Caucasianration," if you like. If it's not acceptable to have a "White Graduation," then it is not acceptable to have any other sort of limited, exclusionary graduation. When worn on the other foot, the shoe pinches.

That's how principles work.

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The university is already looking for workarounds.

The Daily Texan reported further that the "MEC is ‘working diligently to find an alternative home’ for the graduations."
"Because you have been able to come into the space and see many of the staff, I understand that it likely feels that we are operating at status quo, but please make no mistake, while our doors remain open (for now, at least), our programs do not," an email acquired by the Daily Texan states in their report.
Furthermore, a sophomore at UT told The Daily Texan that the Black Graduation was a reason she attended the school. Although students could put on their own Black Graduation, it would seem less "official" if the university did not recognize it.

These programs should not exist, and the university is doing its students a grave disservice in trying to find a workaround instead of telling the young skulls-full-of-mush to suck it up. Were I the president of this institution, my statement would be along these lines:

"There never should have been a 'Black Graduation,' or a 'New Black Student' weekend, or a 'Latinx Homecoming' or any other such exclusionary events. These things are wrong. It is always wrong for this university, which I remind you all is supported by the tax dollars of the people of Texas, to offer events that exclude other students based on immutable characteristics that all people are born with. If students wish to form such groups on their own, they are free to do so — off campus and on their own time. But the university will have no truck with exclusionary events based on race or ethnicity, no matter which race or ethnicity is included or excluded. These things are wrong, they are wrong in every circumstance, and allowing such events leaves students ill-prepared to face the outside world. Texas law now precludes these events, but this kind of discrimination is not wrong because it is illegal; it is illegal because it is wrong."

It would be great to hear a statement of principle along these lines from the leadership of any of our nation's major (or even minor) academic institutions. I'm not holding my breath, though.