*Please do not donate at this time, we are ONLY collecting signatures for this petition. Thank you :)*

NYU, similar to other academic institutions, has been facing insurmountable pressure to capitulate towards the current presidential administration's demands or reckon with funding cuts. In order to appease the current administration, NYU has already rolled back providing gender affirming care to Transgender Youth and forced graduation speakers to pre-record speeches after Logan Rozos cited the atrocities happening in Gaza. 

NYU has failed its students when it comes to protecting our freedom to protest or adequately responding to threats and inflammatory language directed at Black and Muslim students. The latest manifestation of NYU's failure to protect their students is the cancellation of affinity group graduations, a tradition held for a little over half a decade, citing the current "political climate". In a time where marginalized communities need each other most, NYU has not only erased this space but silence our stories of struggle and adversity. Our personal identity is not political, and any assertion of so is inherently the antithesis of what NYU claims to stand for. 

Whether you're in your first or last year of your undergraduate or graduate degree, faculty, alumni, or ally, the cancellation of the affinity groups is setting a dangerous precedent for anyone associated with NYU, or other higher educational institutions. NYU has now shown it is willing to throw its students under the bus in exchange for money. How does NYU expect students from marginalized backgrounds to feel prideful to represent NYU when it seems they are unwilling to be prideful of our existence?

This petition seeks to reinstate the NYU affinity groups as a part of a larger step towards revitalizing what NYU is at its core: an institution that prides itself on diversity and community. Let this be a reminder to all leadership at NYU that the institution is only as strong as your students and to hear our voices now before it's too late.

This petition will be forwarded to all of NYU leadership once enough signatures have accumulated. Thank you again for signing. 

Photo courtesy of @OurStoriesOurStageNYU on Instagram.