What it was like to attend UC Davis as a Latina during Trump’s war on DEI | Opinion

I was about to be the first in my family to graduate from a prestigious Research 1 university when the second Trump administration began its attack on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs — the same type of program that had helped me get to my senior year.

If I hadn’t been introduced to the UC Davis Student Recruitment and Retention Center, a student-run center aimed at supporting students from underserved backgrounds and helping them complete their degrees, I would have dropped out. During my freshman year, I felt that I had no community, no guidance and no support. In my classes and in the dorms, there were few people who shared my brown skin and Spanish mother tongue.

I felt completely alone.

Finding a home on campus

I was lucky to find the Student Recruitment and Retention Center during my sophomore year. The center was born out of student activism following the passing of California’s Proposition 209, which banned affirmative action in the state. This space, rooted in student voices and leadership, became a place where first-generation and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) could have their struggles heard.

At the center, I was able to learn about all the opportunities and resources available to me on campus. I didn’t feel as alone. I received mentorship from Latinx upperclassmen and professionals, helping me tailor my undergraduate experience to my interests and career goals. I attended community dinners, movie nights, study jams, town halls and other events that fostered connections with my peers and resourced me as a student.

I felt empowered in my identity as a Latina, and, for the first time, I felt that I belonged at UC Davis. By my senior year, I was elected to the position of internal chair of the Student Recruitment and Retention Center, where I was able to help shape the culturally centered programs that had changed my own view of and experience in higher education.

I facilitated book clubs, cooking demonstrations, community dialogues, conferences and retreats that created safe, affirming spaces for Latine students to explore identity, build life skills and access support. I would never have been able to have the cultural growth, leadership development and community support I did without the center, and I owe my college degree to this place — which gave me a home.

Why DEI is necessary

While President Donald Trump has convinced millions of Americans that DEI efforts are discriminatory and that they need to be dismantled, the experiences of first-generation students like myself are being excluded and erased from the public imagination.

Last year, Trump issued an Executive Order, threatening funds to K-12 schools and universities that do not remove their DEI programs. Since 2023, when the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in college admissions, there has been an increasing number of state legislation aimed to ban DEI at the college level.

These policies and court rulings against DEI jeopardize the sense of belonging for first-generation and BIPOC college students who already report lower rates of belonging. A strong sense of belonging is associated with higher rates of retention, academic performance and mental health.

Data shows that the national graduation rate gap between Hispanic students and white students is 13% for four-year institutions and 5% for two-year institutions. At UC Davis, a recently designated Hispanic-Serving Institution, the four-year graduation rate gap between underrepresented minority students and non-underrepresented minority students is 20%. These gaps highlight the existing disparities in access, opportunity and representation following decades of systemic exclusion.

When the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released its “Dear Colleague” letter last February — months before my graduation — I felt the ground shift beneath me. The letter warned colleges that they could lose federal funding if they engaged in racial discrimination, while broadly targeting DEI programs and the consideration of race in admissions and campus life.

Almost immediately, my phone filled with messages from worried staff and fellow students. Many of us had benefited from the support of the Student Recruitment and Retention Center, and we were terrified of what its potential dismantling would mean for future students who might never find the community that saved us.

Preserving cultural centers

Thankfully, due to the continued support and funding of campus administrators and California leaders, the center remains open to this day. It’s a crucial center, and UC Davis is right to continue it; it’s the kind of center everyone should support. But as other cultural centers are being forcibly shut down across the country, I worry about students across the country who are left without the same support.

Without the Student Recruitment and Retention Center, I would not have made it to graduation.

At my graduation ceremony, I felt pride and gratitude. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the generations of students coming after me. The invisibility of stories like mine is what allows attacks on DEI to gain legitimacy.

I urge policymakers and college administrators to advocate for the continued funding of cultural student resource centers. These spaces are not political luxuries; they are lifelines that close opportunity gaps created by decades of exclusion.

Just like the student activists who fought to create UC Davis’ Student Recruitment and Retention Center, we can fight to save DEI and create a more equitable educational system for the generations to come.

Ruby Ceja is a recent UC Davis graduate dedicated to advancing communities disproportionately impacted by policy decisions through narrative storytelling and legislative advocacy.