Back in March, Oculus announced the creation of Launch Pad, a workshop and funding initiative created in part as a way to attract the development efforts of "women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community and anyone who is willing to share how their perspective adds to the 'diversity of thought' in our community."

Now, in the wake of reports of Oculus cofounder Palmer Luckey's funding of a controversial pro-Trump "shitposting" group , some participants in that initiative are having doubts about their involvement with the company.

The 100 fellows chosen for the Launch Pad program took part in a one-day bootcamp to develop their project idea in May and have received feedback and mentorship from the company via online forums over the summer. Participants are also competing for scholarships of $5,000 to $50,000, the winners of which will be announced in October.

But Buzzfeed News reports on posts in a private Facebook group where dozens of Launch Pad participants are expressing "surprise, shock, dismay, and disappointment," as one Launch Pad fellow put it to the site.

"I’m doing a Day of the Dead project and showing it at Day of the Dead festivals,” Launch Pad fellow Alejandro Quan-Madrid said. "How can I promote that when the head of Oculus is giving money [to support] Trump—and Trump wants people in my community to be deported?"

Luckey's subsequent apology over the controversy doesn't seem to have altered the mood among fellows much, according to Buzzfeed's report. "It didn’t say anything of real substance,” one fellow wrote. "At some point, I’m not sure if there is anything to be said. It feels like he probably really believes this stuff."

AM Darke, another Launch Pad scholarship recipient working on a grocery-based Gear VR game, expressed her newfound ambivalence about being connected to Oculus in a thoughtful open letter. "As an outspoken proponent of equity and inclusion, as someone who is persistently vocal and critical, even of folks who call themselves allies, I have no intention of boycotting Oculus," Darke writes. "In fact, I insist upon taking up space. People like me need to be in the same room as you."

Darke's post goes on to detail a discussion she had with Luckey, where the Oculus cofounder reportedly said he wouldn't "lower standards" by hiring someone who was less than the best for the sake of diversity. "That struck me as disturbing, that you equate diversity with lowered standards," she writes. "That hiring the best and being diverse were mutually exclusive. I felt a little defeated, to be honest."

That said, Darke adds that she has been impressed with the resources and support Oculus as a company has given her since joining Launch Pad. "Despite having said things I found ignorant and offensive, you also gave me an opportunity to be considered one of 'the best,'" she writes. "Consequently, my feelings about your involvement with the alt-right community, and what should be done about it, are complex."

These Launch Pad fellows now find themselves in the same boat as countless other VR developers working with Oculus, a few of whom have publicly separated from the company since the news about Luckey came to light. As Oculus' executives work to defend their colleague's actions as private political opinion that is not reflective of the larger organization, that justification doesn't seem to be very convincing for some.

“The days of separation between a founder’s values and his company’s values are waning," as one fellow told Buzzfeed. "And there’s a bigger question: Are the values he embodies good for Facebook?"