Deep-Rooted Grievances Prompt Sit-In at Howard U.: ‘We’ll Be Here as Long as It Takes’
By Emma Kerr
March 30, 2018
Several hundred students have lined the halls of the main administration building at Howard University for more than 24 hours, part of a sit-in aimed at forcing administrators at the prominent historically black institution to respond to a list of nine demands.
The sit-in followed news that six university employees were fired last year for pocketing money from university grants intended for needy students. It was only the latest in a series of scandals that have hit home for those struggling to make tuition payments.
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Several hundred students have lined the halls of the main administration building at Howard University for more than 24 hours, part of a sit-in aimed at forcing administrators at the prominent historically black institution to respond to a list of nine demands.
The sit-in followed news that six university employees were fired last year for pocketing money from university grants intended for needy students. It was only the latest in a series of scandals that have hit home for those struggling to make tuition payments.
“We’re all black students. We go to this institution. We pay $45,000 a year. If they choose to remove us from a building we pay for, that’s on them,” Juan Demetrixx, a senior, said on Friday during a news conference outside the building. “We’ll be here as long as it takes.”
Social-media posts have provided a glimpse inside the occupied building: Stacks of water bottles line one wall. An open box of Milky Way bars and tubs of peanut butter and jelly scatter the floor. Students have blow-up mattresses and blankets, and some gather around a TV, apparently watching the documentary Color Me Black. Protesters sing along to Rihanna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money.”
The group organizing the protest, HUResists, releases updates online: “All floors are occupied!” one read. As administrators prepared to come to work on Friday, HUResists tweeted: “If you do not have a Howard University student ID, you cannot enter the building.”
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The demands cover a laundry list of problems affecting students in recent years, including a housing system in chaos. In September 2015 students complained of infrastructure problems: no air conditioning in classrooms, no hot water in dormitories, rats, and no help. In January 2016 nearly 200 students were evicted from Howard dorms because they owed the university money.
Then in September 2017 the university announced plans to convert two dorms into luxury apartments to make money. This semester, some students went without power and heat. When one student went to the top to ask for help, Wayne A.I. Frederick, Howard’s president, said, “Your tone and tenor is inappropriate.” Then he referred her to other offices.
The Demands
Written in black and red marker on big sheets of paper, and hung over photographs of the university’s trustees, the demands include Frederick’s resignation, guaranteed housing for all students under the age of 21, and an extension of the housing-deposit deadline for the fall to May 1.
Another demand is “an immediate end to tuition hikes.” About 60 percent of Howard’s 5,900 undergraduates are eligible for Pell Grants, awarded to the neediest students, and the university has increasingly struggled to provide other need-based aid, the protesters said. Confirming suspicions surrounding the misuse of student-aid funds, Frederick released a statement on Wednesday saying that changes had been made to “ensure this never happens again.”
“While this has been a very difficult and disappointing situation, I know our campus community deserves better,” he continued, “and I am committed to ensure that each of our campus offices operate with integrity and are the best that higher education has to offer.”
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In a separate statement, released on Friday, the university’s trustees affirmed their support for Frederick and said “many of the concerns” reflected in the demands “are inaccurate.”
The demands were compiled from a student-led survey of students’ experiences. The survey found that 63 percent of the 403 respondents don’t think they’re getting their money’s worth living on the campus, and 90 percent don’t trust Howard to manage their money. Nearly half of the respondents said they did not have access to resources like printers and study spaces, sometimes because they aren’t cleaned or maintained. Seventy-five percent said they were dissatisfied with financial aid.
“We will continue to uphold our power over the administration until we are more than satisfied that our demands have been met,” Alexis McKenney, a senior, said at the news conference. “The actions taken by students are only the first steps in attaining a liberated HBCU that functions not only in the interests of Howard University students, but also for the liberation of all black people.”
Organizers said on Friday afternoon that members of the Board of Trustees had agreed to meet with them.