Howard U. Sit-In Could Be the Start of Something Bigger
By Emma KerrApril 2, 2018
Washington
Student protesters at Howard University, who are entering their fifth day of occupying the campus’s executive offices, say they won’t leave until their demands for change are met. Among the demands: improved campus housing, the resignation of the university’s president, and a more forceful response to sexual assault.
Side by side, the windows and doors of the main administration building are lined with testaments to students’ experiences at Howard. One protest sign reads: “I am here because I have countless number of friends who were forced to leave Howard.” Another says: “I love my school, and I want it to be the best not just for me but for future generations.”
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Student protesters at Howard University, who are entering their fifth day of occupying the campus’s executive offices, say they won’t leave until their demands for change are met. Among the demands: improved campus housing, the resignation of the university’s president, and a more forceful response to sexual assault.
Side by side, the windows and doors of the main administration building are lined with testaments to students’ experiences at Howard. One protest sign reads: “I am here because I have countless number of friends who were forced to leave Howard.” Another says: “I love my school, and I want it to be the best not just for me but for future generations.”
Dozens of signs cover the glass windows surrounding entrances on the ground floor: “I’m here because my Title IX case from 2016 has yet to be followed up on.” “I am here because I should not have to sit in class with rapists.”
The demands were based on the results of a student survey, and so are specific to Howard, a leading historically black institution, but they also mirror complaints of students at other HBCUs.
Just over a month ago, another HBCU faced a similar flash point of student concerns. At the top of the list were strikingly similar issues: housing and sexual assault.
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Hampton University students confronted administrators at a tense town-hall meeting in February, raising concerns about what they called a failure to deal with sexual assault on the Virginia campus. Some students created a Twitter page where students could anonymously share stories of sexual misconduct at Hampton.
After that town-hall meeting, students also complained of mold in buildings and inedible food. The hashtag #HUTownHall became a way for Hampton students to describe their housing problems and frustrations with administrators. Campus officials responded to the complaints by outlining explanations and efforts to improve.
At the same time, Howard students were venting about housing chaos under the hashtag #HomelessAtHoward. Students complained of poor facility conditions, including a lack of hot water and power, and an overall shortage of housing.
We see you, we hear you, and we are with you.
Students at Hampton and Spelman College, an HBCU for women in Atlanta, have come out in support of the Howard sit-in. “We see you, we hear you, and we are with you,” the Spelman student government wrote on Twitter.
Howard students say they hope their decision to organize the sit-in will inspire other HBCUs, especially those with less prominence, to push for change.
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“Many other HBCUs have been going through the same thing, so if they do see this and feel inspired to do the same thing, that would be great,” said Oluwatimilein Bamgbola, a junior at Howard.
A Demand Is Met
The sit-in at Howard is already yielding results. Student organizers, leading a group called HU Resist, say both parts of their first demand have already been met. The university’s trustees agreed to “provide adequate housing for all students under the age of 21 and extend the fall-2018 housing-deposit deadline to May 1.”
Organizers said on Monday morning that they had been in negotiations with the trustees for five hours, until 2:30 a.m. the previous night, and another meeting was scheduled for Monday afternoon. Other demands have already been agreed to unofficially, Omaui Minder, an HU Resist organizer and freshman at Howard, told The Chronicle. Still, the university continues to issue statements of support for Wayne A.I. Frederick, the president, including one from the alumni association on Sunday.
Alumni “dealt with what we saw as problems when we were students,” wrote Nadia N. Pinto, president of the association. “Since then our university has experienced many advancements, particularly under the leadership of President Frederick.”
My fellow board members and I fully support President Frederick’s continuous progress on the critical issues facing our campus community.
Stacey J. Mobley, chairman of the Board of Trustees, also affirmed its support for the president in a written statement on Friday. “While I recognize this has been a difficult week for our entire community,” he wrote, “my fellow board members and I fully support President Frederick’s continuous progress on the critical issues facing our campus community.”
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The university said in a tweet on Monday that Frederick had met with students to hear their concerns and answer questions. Howard is expected to hold town-hall meetings, with officials saying they are committed to a continuing dialogue with students.
The number of students taking part in the protest has grown steadily, not diminished, according to Minder. “Last night we hit 400,” he said. “We’re going to be able to make some sustained change. Trustees have been moving on a few of the demands. We’ve secured the housing deadline and guaranteed housing. Those are two things, especially in recent times, that to get a win on that front has been really important.”
Logistics of a Sit-In
Mobilizing and maintaining hundreds of students in a campus building for four days requires organization, though, and lots of food. “Yesterday we had cookout food, like collard greens and rib tips and chicken,” Minder said.
Food has also come from alumni. A few showed up Monday morning and unloaded cases of water bottles, boxes of various chips, and other necessities from the back of their SUV. But the building itself is open to students only. Protesters take turns sitting on a chair outside the main entrance, checking student IDs before allowing anyone to pass.
At night, some floors are designated as quiet spaces, others for women only. Students listen to music, create their own classes, and hold activities. When a decision needs to be made, it follows a popular vote among students in the building and a discussion that aims to validate different perspectives and opinions.
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Jazmin Russo, a guard on Monday, had been monitoring the entrance door since 6 a.m. On Saturday, she said, she served food from noon until midnight with few breaks. She said it would be great to see students at other colleges who have experienced the same kinds of problems hold their own sit-ins.
“They see our demands being met, and we’re encouraging other schools to stand up for their student rights and stand up for what they believe, stand up for their student power,” Russo said. And by way of advice, she said: “Find common ground. A lot of common ground.”
For Howard that common ground includes housing and financial aid.
“Housing was a very, very, very big issue,” Russo said. “And every last person in that building can relate to at least some part of housing. Financial aid. A lot of students are on loans, a lot of students have had their scholarships taken away.”
The protesters said they’d cultivated an unprecedented sense of community.
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“As much as it is replicable, I think people should attempt to replicate it. The university benefits so greatly from this happening: the morale of the student body, the discussions this has sparked inside and outside of here, the health of students,” Minder said. “People have told us this is their first time having fresh food on campus. That this is the first time they are feeling genuinely happy on campus.”
Correction (4/13/2018, 3:54 p.m.): A previous version of this article incorrectly identified Stacey J. Mobley as a woman. He is a man. The article has been updated to reflect this correction.