While Eastern Michigan University holds a commencement ceremony for the class of 2026, the Center of Race and Ethnicity has its own graduation ceremony as well.
Multicultural Graduation Celebration will take place Friday, May 1, 2026. The event is intended to celebrate and acknowledge graduating students of color.
“The purpose is to just create another opportunity to celebrate students graduating from Eastern with this program in particular, advertising as being a place to celebrate our diverse population of students at Eastern,” said Sariah Metcalfe, the program coordinator for CORE.
MGC is a campus tradition from CORE. It is expected that this year will be the largest MGC in several years, Metcalfe said. Due to this, the number of tickets each participating graduate can get will be limited. Attending graduates will receive two guest tickets. After registration closes, additional tickets may be released.
“We highly encourage folks to stay connected to the Center of Race and Ethnicity via email, as well as via social media, to get updates about tickets,” Metcalfe said. “So that folks who want to participate in the celebration can register and folks who are looking for, you know, community tickets, will know where to go.”
This is the only Multicultural Graduation for the 2025-26 academic year.
Metcalfe expressed her excitement for MGC this year, saying that from her own experience, navigating the undergraduate experience can be really intense.
“It can be a really long road to completion, and I'm excited by the opportunity to be able to create another chance for students to celebrate, connect with their friends and just [be] recognized for this achievement,” she said.
The theme for this year’s Multicultural Graduation is activating the leader within you, Metcalfe said. She hopes that students who participate can get an affirming message related to their own abilities to be leaders and change makers in their communities.
Metcalfe wishes that the event can be an opportunity to celebrate the uniqueness of different cultural experiences and to see the cultural diversity in an academic setting.
Each student who participates in the celebration will get a cultural stole to wear with their graduation regalia.
The registration for MGC is open until March 25, 2026, for those who wish to participate.
For those who have questions about MGC, students can get in touch with CORE by their core_emu@emich.edu email, students can visit the Multicultural Graduation Celebration page on the CORE website and their page @core_emu on Instagram.
