Jerry Griffin, an admissions counselor at the University of California at Davis, is seeking an apology from the university after his supervisor, Bob Ferrando, demanded he take off the kilt he was wearing during Welcome Week, when newly admitted students and their parents first descend on campus. Griffin was celebrating National Tartan Day, a new Scottish-American holiday recently approved by the Senate celebrating independence from Britain in 1320, by wearing the blue, black, and green plaid weave of the clan Donald, the largest and most powerful of the Scottish highland clans.

Griffin complains that the university respects the diversity of some people but not others, pointing to celebrations of African-American Family Week, Native American Culture Days, Asian-Pacific Cultural Week, the Whole Earth Festival, and Soaring to New Heights Day. Griffin also cites the university catalog, which states: "We promote open expression of our individuality and our diversity within the bounds of courtesy, sensitivity, and respect. We confront and reject all manifestations of discrimination, including those based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, status within or outside the community." The local branch of Clan MacLean has offered to station naked blue-painted soldiers—a Pictish custom highlighted in battle scenes from the movie "Braveheart"—in front of the campus admissions building as a lesson in diversity.

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