Black student organizations collaborate to create a list of demands

Photo courtesy of the Black Student Union’s Instagram

As the fight for racial equity continues across the nation, Black students are at the forefront of student activism on Hofstra’s campus. Nine predominately Black student organizations created a list of 13 demands that was sent to multiple university administrators on Sunday, Aug. 2.

The eight-page document discusses a variety of demands that include changes to Hofstra’s curricula and campus facilities, a concrete approach to dealing with hate speech on campus and the diversification of faculty and courses.

“Seeing what’s happening around the world and the reaction to it, while it was heartwarming, also kind of left me feeling powerless and exhausted,” said Amudalat Ajasa, a junior journalism major and president of the Black Student Union (BSU) who spearheaded the list of demands. “I wanted to make an impact, [and] there wasn’t enough outrage for me, people weren’t emotionally affected by what was happening to Black people in the world, because it’s not [always] on their radar as white students at Hofstra.”

The demands were sent to President Stuart Rabinowitz, Provost Herman Berliner, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Cornell Craig, Dean of Students Gabrielle St. Léger, Vice President for Student Affairs W. Houston Dougharty, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Jean Peden Christodoulou, Assistant Director for Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives Lorraine Massiah, Director of Intercultural Engagement and Inclusion Gillian Atkinson and the Student Government Association (SGA).

Although the university sent out a statement of solidarity and a list of projected initiatives that would be put in place to combat racism on campus on Thursday, June 11, the students in these organizations felt that the response was performative. They wanted a more immediate response that guaranteed meaningful action.

“[The university] didn’t talk about Black students, they didn’t reach out to Black students,” Ajasa said. “Yeah, they had a day of discussion and coping, but it’s not a day for Black people – it’s a lifetime.”

The list of demands went from concept to completion over the course of two months, with Ajasa initially meeting with current and old members of BSU’s executive board to draft a preliminary version on Thursday, June 25. The intention was to have the list signed by the BSU E-Board before inviting other Black student organizations on campus to get involved.

The leaders of BSU, Hofstra’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Hofstra Gospel Ensemble, the Hofstra Society of Black Engineers, Strictly Steppin’, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta and Sigma Gamma Rho then created a student advocacy group called Black Leaders Advocating for Change (BLAC).

“I had a conference call with the dance department, and we actually were discussing something similar to this, they wanted to know how they can help Black students,” said Normani Thomas, a senior dance education major and the president of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. “I realized that it didn’t necessarily have to do with the department – responsibility shouldn’t fall on just your department – it should fall on the university as a whole. That’s what really made me want to take the initiative and make sure that we are heard and that we are included.”

The document begins with a demand to establish a written zero-tolerance policy toward hate speech. This proposal would hold students, faculty and administrators equally accountable for any form of hate speech, which BLAC defines as, “Speech that is intended to cause harm, offends/insults or encourages violence toward an individual or group on the basis of race, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, social or economic class, disability or other protected traits.” Any student who violates the policy will be reprimanded accordingly in the form of a fine, academic probation, suspension from clubs and sports or expulsion, whereas faculty and administrative staff will be subject to an investigation in accordance with Title IX.

The document also calls for Public Safety to be held accountable for the racist encounters that students have been recounting in light of recent events. Many students have used platforms like the @blackathofstra Instagram page to anonymously share their experiences with Public Safety.

“At my first BSU meeting [as a freshman], I was told by people sharing their experiences that Public Safety was not for us, that they did not support us, [and] a lot of the students in that meeting expressed instances of being profiled, targeted or harassed by Public Safety,” Ajasa said. “Being on campus, the stories that I’ve heard by students, I just feel like the complaints have not been taken seriously.”

Also included in the list are demands to provide Black students with their own housing, a Living Learning Center for students of color, more diversity within Hofstra faculty and staff, the inclusion of Black history in American history courses and a mandatory “Racism in the U.S.” distribution course.

Housing and curriculum demands are ones that Black students have been fighting for since at least 1969. According to the Hofstra Special Collections Library, the Organization of Black Collegians demanded that Black students be housed together, an African American Studies Center be created and run by Black faculty, more Black faculty and staff be hired and Black literature be available in the bookstore, in a letter to former President Clifford Lee Lord on Feb. 21, 1969.

While the university offers a Bachelor of Arts in African Studies, the classes required to complete the degree are not consistently offered during the fall and spring semesters. Students pursing a degree in African Studies are required to take 30 credits throughout various departments. Out of the 34 classes students can choose from, only three will be available this fall semester, none of which are courses within the African Studies department.

“Hofstra has so many other cultural classes, like Asian Studies or European studies, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but if the university can have other studies for other cultures – which is very important because we need to learn about other cultures – then we should also have studies dedicated to Black culture as well,” said Athena Dawson, the public relations chair for the NAACP and a junior journalism major.

The document further states a need for better mental health resources for Black students. In the past, Black therapists on campus have been graduate students, making them a temporary resource, according to Brittany Johnson, a senior double major in psychology and Spanish and the president of Hofstra’s dance team Strictly Steppin’. She explained that it can often feel like a burden for Black students to explain themselves to therapists who can’t empathize with their feelings and experiences.

“Sitting there and having to explain the school to prison pipeline, and why my sibling is going through this and how it hurts me – having to take the extra step to explain that is hard, especially when we could have a Black person who already knows what’s going on and can relate to us,” Johnson said.

Additionally, one of the demands serves as a statement of solidarity with the Jefferson Has Gotta Go! campaign and calls for the complete removal of the Thomas Jefferson statue, which was recently relocated from outside of the David S. Mack Student Center to the back of Emily Lowe Hall on South Campus. The students are also demanding amnesty should they want to have future protests on campus of a similar nature to the protests for and against the Jefferson statue in 2018.

“If we wanted to hold a demonstration, sit-in or marches on campus, we just want to know we won’t be punished for [exercising] our right to defend ourselves and stand up for what we believe in,” said Vincent Robinson, a junior biology major and the vice president of BSU.

The list of demands has garnered support from SGA, which plans to invite the collaborators to attend a senate meeting in the near future, according to Equity and Inclusion Chairwoman Maria Mobley.

“One way that SGA helps to amplify the student voice is that we write legislation based on the opinion of the student body,” Mobley said in an email interview. “Once it passes, it gets sent directly to the President and his cabinet.”

Mobley also stated that the SGA Equity and Inclusion Committee has been working with the office of the Dean of Students to create a more inclusive environment but could not disclose further details regarding the ongoing project.

“We don’t want it to be like a ‘white versus Black’ or ‘[white versus] people of color’ thing because, ultimately, the goal is for complete inclusivity,” said Rayden Edwards, a senior mechanical engineering major and the vice president of Sigma Gamma Rho. “We’re just trying to make it better for us and being pro-Black doesn’t mean anti-white. Hopefully, people will try to learn and educate themselves because of this list.”

Dean of Students and Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Gabrielle St. Leger declined a request for comment temporarily. She stated in an email that a portion of administrators who received the list of demands have arranged for a meeting with its collaborators.

A condensed version of the list of demands can be found on BSU’s Instagram account, @hofstra_bsu.