tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/mizzou-22596/articlesMizzou – The Conversation2015-12-02T11:05:27Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/506982015-12-02T11:05:27Z2015-12-02T11:05:27ZStudents’ demand for diverse faculty is a demand for a better education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103772/original/image-20151130-10285-1e3lnhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students are demanding more diverse faculty.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/azj5bZ">cybrarian77/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent demands for a more diverse faculty at <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-long-and-troubled-racial-past-of-mizzou-50639">the University of Missouri</a> are being echoed by student activists at universities across the country. </p>
<p>Inspired by calls for reform at Mizzou, 400 <a href="http://wtvr.com/2015/11/19/hundreds-of-students-faculty-demand-more-diversity-at-vcu/">Virginia Commonwealth University</a> students, faculty and alumni convened a forum on the scarcity of black faculty. <a href="http://wwlp.com/2015/11/10/yale-students-demand-a-more-diverse-faculty/">Hundreds of Yale students</a> called for an increase in faculty diversity, as a means of improving the racial climate on campus. The week before Thanksgiving, a group of Brandeis students began occupying an administration building <a href="http://www.gazettenet.com/home/19680551-95/brandeis-students-occupy-administration-building-for-diversity-demands">demanding more</a> full-time black faculty. </p>
<p>As a black professor whose teaching and scholarship explore racial diversity in higher education, I believe the students’ demands highlight a deficiency that exists at institutions across the US. I also believe increasing faculty diversity would improve the climate and culture on college campuses, and improve the quality of education for every student. </p>
<h2>Ethnic studies departments</h2>
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<p>Demands for racially diverse faculty are nothing new. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://vimeo.com/23242564">late 1960s</a> and early 1970s, students at campuses nationwide engaged in sit-ins, walk-outs, hunger strikes and calls for the creation of <a href="http://ethnicstudies.berkeley.edu/about/history">ethnic studies departments</a>. Student activists also demanded course offerings focused on the histories and realities of black, Native, Asian, and Latino Americans. These efforts resulted in the creation of ethnic studies departments, predominantly staffed by faculty of color. By 1993, there were approximately <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20405023.pdf?acceptTC=true">700 such departments</a>.</p>
<p>In the 1980s and 1990s, spurred by civil rights lawsuits and White House guidelines, colleges and universities also engaged in conscious efforts to hire faculty of color across departments. The progress made, however, was short-lived, and by 2010 recruitment and retention rates for faculty of color <a href="http://diverseeducation.com/article/78225/">began to stagnate</a>.</p>
<p>According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, in 2013 <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d14/tables/dt14_315.20.asp">only 21.5%</a> of faculty at institutions of higher learning across the nation were black, Latino, First Nation, Asian or Pacific Islanders. During that same year, people of color comprised 39% of <a href="http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-color-united-states-0">the total US population</a>. Fewer <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=61">than 17%</a> of full-time faculty were from these underrepresented racial groups. </p>
<p>The reasons for small percentages of faculty of color on college campuses are manifold. </p>
<p>They <a href="http://www.uaf.edu/files/uafhr/Turner,-Gonzalez,-and-Wood.pdf">include</a>: </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2015/02/lack-diversity-leads-burden-professors-color">heavier committee assignments</a> to ensure diversity on faculty committees</li>
<li>entrenched institutional racial biases </li>
<li>racialized <a href="http://www.browndailyherald.com/2014/12/05/structural-bias-poses-obstacles-faculty-color/">hiring decisions</a> </li>
<li>inadequate support for faculty of color during <a href="http://research.utah.edu/_documents/mentoring/thompson2008.pdf">the promotion and tenure process</a>, and </li>
<li>racialized perceptions of <a href="http://features.yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/11/17/in-and-out/">what constitutes legitimate research</a> and scholarship. When academics of color produce work focused on or informed by experiences falling outside of prevailing norms or publish pieces that challenge the status quo, their scholarship is vulnerable to being characterized as biased or anti-intellectual. </li>
</ul>
<h2>Today’s students are tomorrow’s faculty</h2>
<p>Demands for increased faculty diversity are particularly timely as the US Supreme Court prepares to decide <a href="http://tarltonguides.law.utexas.edu/fisher-ut">an affirmative action</a> case this term. Some legal scholars and court-watchers anticipate that the court may decide that universities are no longer constitutionally permitted to consider race in admissions decisions. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen how such a decision would impact faculty diversity on college campuses. However, a ruling that ends affirmative action could cause a precipitous drop in students of color admitted to institutions of higher education. That would further narrow the pipeline of prospective faculty of color. </p>
<p>The inclusion of faculty of color is not merely a matter of optics. The dearth of diverse faculty <a href="http://www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres/97003B7B-055F-4318-B14A-5336321FB742/0/DIVREP.PDF">compromises the quality</a> of education for all students.</p>
<p>A diverse faculty, like a diverse student body, enhances the quality of the academic environment and yields positive learning outcomes for every student at an institution.</p>
<h2>Making up for shortcomings of K-12 schools</h2>
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<span class="caption">US elementary schools are largely segregated.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-222100939/stock-photo-group-of-elementary-school-children-in-computer-class.html?src=csl_recent_image-2">www.shutterstock.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>As the Civil Rights Project at UCLA <a href="http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/brown-at-60-great-progress-a-long-retreat-and-an-uncertain-future/Brown-at-60-051814">reports</a>, K-12 schools across the nation remain largely segregated 60 years after the Supreme Court’s decision in <a href="http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=87&page=transcript">Brown v Board of Education</a>.</p>
<p>That means that instruction from faculty of color at the university level provides many students with their first exposure to a nonwhite teacher in a classroom with racially diverse classmates. </p>
<p>This experience can surface students’ conscious and unconscious racial biases. </p>
<p>It can also challenge students to reconcile different perspectives and experiences in a way that inspires higher order thinking and analysis. </p>
<p>The presence of professors of color can also positively impact the campus climate by fostering inclusion and cross-cultural understanding. Their presence can attract students of color to the campus who would view the environment as more welcoming and as embracing diversity as an institutional and educational value. </p>
<p>Recent demands for increased faculty of color emerge against a backdrop of racial tensions on <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/11/campus-protest-roundup/417570">college campuses nationwide</a>. University leadership at other schools would be wise to take steps to increase faculty diversity before campus protests erupt and, in doing so, improve the educational experience of every student.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tanya Washington does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many students arrive at college without ever having a non-white teacher. Professors of color can inspire higher order thinking and analysis.Tanya Washington, Professor of Law, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/510782015-11-23T10:31:55Z2015-11-23T10:31:55ZHere’s how history is shaping the #studentblackout movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102692/original/image-20151121-412-1j3ctc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students across campuses are protesting against racial injustice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/max-goldberg/23050032346/in/photolist-B7RryN-Awbuko-B8X7Vo-AwbEzk-AwbtPU-AwbEkc-qEiTCL-pZS6oo-qEpMhM-qErwhv-qEhveN-pZS13d-qEpHAP-qErtgR-qWHh34-qWS8VD-qErsdP-qEpDRz-pZRVcG-qErowa-qWMunY-dVdmE3-dV7LWR-dV7LP4-dV7LDT-dVdm73-dVdkWU-dVdkPb-dV7KZk-dVdkwj-dV7KEn-dV7Kuc-dV7KhF-dVdjGj-dV7JVa-49dLju-5AmTdn-qWHogB-qErxY6-qUz6zd-qEiPwu-qWSbyp-qErr2R-qErqKi-qEpEhK-qEiEvy-qWS34i-qEhjHY-qEiCm3-qErjkz">Max Goldberg</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="http://dailycampus.com/stories/2015/11/20/yale-missouri-protests-spark-nationwide-backlash-on-college-campuses">Students are protesting</a> over racism across campuses in the United States. We asked Marshall Ganz, who dropped out of Harvard as an undergraduate to be an organizer in 1964 and now teaches organizing and leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, to discuss the significance of these protests and the history of student activism.</em></p>
<p><strong>What is the history of student activism in the United States and how has it been a catalyst for change?</strong></p>
<p>Student activism in the US goes back to the 19th century, but <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/why-david-sometimes-wins-9780195162011?cc=us&lang=en&">I became involved</a> in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, a time when student activism – initiated largely by Black students – played an especially prominent role. </p>
<p>Dr [Martin Luther] King, when he led the bus boycott, was only 25 years old. The leaders of the “sit-ins” in Tennessee and North Carolina were 19- to 21-year-old students at Historically Black Colleges (HBCs). For those of us who were not Black but shared the values of the civil rights movement, it was both challenging and inspiring to see the courage of peers who were “walking the walk.”</p>
<p>Although <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo5939918.html">many of the activists</a> came from colleges, for the most part colleges were not the targets of the movement. The civil rights movement was more focused on issues such as voting, public accommodations, police brutality and schooling.</p>
<p>But the civil rights movement inspired other currents of change that did target colleges. For example, the <a href="http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/sixtiesprotest/berkeley.htm">free speech movement</a> that started in the fall of 1964 was sparked by University of California’s attempts to curb student fund-raising for <a href="http://www.core-online.org/History/history.htm">civil rights</a> <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/sncc">groups</a>. </p>
<p>It led to a reaction that spread rapidly across campuses. In the famous words of <a href="http://www.savio.org/who_was_mario.html">Mario Savio</a>, one of the key leaders of this movement, students protested against attempts by universities to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ELARIo1Xb1sC&pg=PA205&lpg=PA205&dq=folded,+spindled,+and+mutilated+mario+savio&source=bl&ots=rCFtl-HLvx&sig=-_On-iikm3HS1yR1J8paRH1md3I&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwic0O6TiqPJAhVEXD4KHZxYCOYQ6AEINjAD#v=onepage&q=folded%2C%20spindled%2C%20and%20mutilated%20mario%20saviofol&f=false">“fold, spindle, or mutilate”</a> them in ways that denied their dignity and capacity for self-determination. </p>
<p>Then came <a href="http://www.afhso.af.mil/topics/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=15267">Operation Rolling Thunder</a> – when the large scale “call-up” of young people to fight the war in Vietnam started. The “draft” meant that every young man had to make a choice – some among the more privileged stayed in school; some went to Canada; some others went to jail. </p>
<p>This was also the time when universities became the focus of the antiwar movement, as that was where the students were. Many viewed universities as being complicit – through war-related research, or the presence of <a href="http://100.lmu.edu/Assets/Centennial/Website/Oral+History/Articles/mcnerney2.pdf">ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps)</a> on campus. So they became a focal point for protest. </p>
<p><strong>From your perspective, how does the current #studentblackout movement look?</strong></p>
<p>There is a <a href="http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/productgroup/390/The-Prophetic-Imagination">deep affinity</a> between generational change and social change. Protestant theologian <a href="http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/productgroup/390/The-Prophetic-Imagination">Walter Bruggemann says</a> that “prophetic” or “transformational vision” may occur when a person’s experience of the world’s hurt (a critical view) interacts with a person’s experience of the world’s promise (a hopeful view). Similarly, young people come of age with a critical eye on the world they find, but also, almost of necessity – with hopeful hearts. </p>
<p>The civil rights movement opened a lot of doors. But it left so much undone. It expanded the opportunities for so-called “qualified” people of color to enter the power structure, but failed to reconfigure the power structure itself. </p>
<p>In particular, the economics of institutionalized racism were not really addressed, nor was urban poverty, segregated housing or poor schooling, with all its consequences. Dr King, when he was killed, was organizing the <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91626373">“Poor People’s Campaign.”</a> At the time, racial justice, economic justice and political justice were linked. </p>
<p>Subsequently, they got decoupled. Economics in particular got left behind.</p>
<p>Something similar happened in the American women’s movement that began to open pathways into the power structure but <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/sociology/sociology-general-interest/states-markets-families-gender-liberalism-and-social-policy-australia-canada-great-britain-and-united-states">did little</a> to change the conditions faced by working women – who needed access to childcare and family leave policies. Contrast that to other countries where there was less focus on access for the elite. </p>
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<span class="caption">Students are protesting against racial injustice across campuses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/max-goldberg/22657705877/in/photolist-AwbEzk-A">Max Goldberg</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>It is a great thing that this generation has been challenged and motivated to take this fight forward.</p>
<p>In the past, the thrust of student movement as such was not as focused on race in particular. This movement is much more focused. It is a bit ironic that while there has been progress on race and gender equality since the 1960s, we have gone backwards on economic equality. </p>
<p><strong>Should the troubled past of racial history be removed from campuses?</strong></p>
<p>When we did the <a href="http://www.educationanddemocracy.org/ED_FSC.html">freedom schools</a> in 1964, we had a book called <a href="http://www.crmvet.org/docs/negro_history_primer.pdf">Freedom Primer</a> – it was a telling of Black history – as nobody knew Black history. What was being taught in the schools was reconstruction and redemption. The narrative was that reconstruction was a disaster – when savages took over. And redemption brought order with the restoration of white rule. Black history had been obliterated.</p>
<p>That racial history is embedded everywhere. The process of reclaiming African-American history was an important part of the claims about dignity. And continues to be. It is all a part of challenging the narratives that try to make you less than a human being – an object.</p>
<p>I like the fact that in Harvard’s <a href="https://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ememhall/">Memorial Hall</a> the only names listed are the names of those Harvard students who fought for the Union. White students from the South protest from time to time but, so far, with little success. </p>
<p>You have to take on what you have access to – and that is what the students are doing. The question is whether that is sufficient. </p>
<p><strong>What about students at Princeton asking to remove the name of Woodrow Wilson?</strong></p>
<p>Woodrow Wilson reinforced racism in the US at a time when leadership was needed in the opposite direction. The Japanese at the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=YwHbgnSi_sQC&pg=PR4&lpg=PR4&dq=Japan-Race-Equality-Institute-Routledge&source=bl&ots=gv_Ef67pMe&sig=Br3hU6t_8uv9jdC7L1BfQbPrvh8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwic3bWc4Z_JAhWCRyYKHQeGCKkQ6AEIODAE#v=onepage&q=Japan-Race-Equality-Institute-Routledge&f=false">League of Nations were arguing for racial equality</a>, which he opposed. </p>
<p>Why should schools carry the name of such an outspoken and influential racist? </p>
<p>It still does not shift the economic reality, the criminal justice reality or the political disenfranchisement reality. It’s only a piece of it. </p>
<p><strong>Is dialogue not better than confrontation?</strong></p>
<p>Dialogue becomes possible only under conditions of equal power. It is hard for unequals to have a dialogue. In a posture of inequality, the one with the power sets the terms. The one without power is expected to accept the terms. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300056693">first step</a> toward creating a dialogue may be to shout and speak the truth. Then comes the strategic question: can we build the power we need to create the conditions in which real dialogue can occur? And that’s when movements have to be resourceful enough to find new sources of power. Substituting dialogue for equality is a sham and winds up being a play-act. Power, as it is, is never ceded willingly.</p>
<p>Missouri offers an <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2587592-tim-wolfe-resigns-as-missouri-president-amid-protests-boycott-by-football-team?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial">interesting example</a>. It started with the football team, which has a lot of economic power – you get to a dialogue stage only when you get to a balance of power. </p>
<p><strong>Is a more corporate structure of universities changing who has the power?</strong></p>
<p>Yes, some things are changing. There is pressure to monetize – especially at some for-profit colleges. But the thing is that some structures have not changed – for the most part, especially in the elite colleges, the people who had power are the ones who still have the power – donors, traditional elites. Look who’s on the board of <a href="http://www.harvard.edu/about-harvard/harvards-leadership/president-and-fellows-harvard-corporation">Harvard corporation.</a> </p>
<p>If anything, there is more leverage today – people are willing to challenge and speak up.</p>
<p>Universities will tend to accommodate to the extent they can without ceding real power. They will agree – “okay, we will change the name of X.” That’s important and significant, but it needs to be joined with greater economic opportunity, not only for African Americans able to get into college in the first place, but black youth more broadly. </p>
<p><strong>What about the role of leadership in present times?</strong></p>
<p>On one hand there is the leadership of the students’ movement, which is vibrant, dynamic, emergent and, like most social movements, <a href="http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/joreen/tyranny.htm">tends to view structure</a> with skepticism. </p>
<p>On the other hand is the university leadership, which is not very well-prepared. Few faculty have much training in leadership, especially the kind of moral leadership grounded in confidence, clarity about one’s own values and empathetic understanding of role of challenge in creating constructive change. That can be tough when you don’t know how to find the courage to respond constructively in the first place.</p>
<p>This movement is quite extraordinary – a new generation accepting responsibility for confronting the deep roots of racial inequality in this country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marshall Ganz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A former activist turned professor says previous student movements may have opened the door for people of color to have greater opportunity but fell short of changing the power structure.Marshall Ganz, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/506952015-11-16T11:10:21Z2015-11-16T11:10:21ZWhy have the demands of black students changed so little since the 1960s?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101946/original/image-20151115-10438-ainmxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What's new about black students' demands?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/snakegirlproductions/17303015461/in/photolist-sn1tEM-sn3TUZ-9ujE3d-Vtpp-biTh9X-bjrq7a-bjrwqB-8ZsRs9-bjrxVv-EzhDq-dJvabV-biTg22-bjrwye-6t2jz-pdE9qN-wT5iJX-79apGu-nbsZMA-biTijK-xQAihT-6v9hek-nbyyPf-rD3nJX-bjrxba-bjrxs6-7YjEQu-bDRPuS-9chSab-5rdMaE-8xcPmQ-apeSDm-9NJfwE-biTeYn-9NDgMs-8x9MR4-9G5Ks2-8x9Mzi-8xcNUy-biTbdF-biTbZH-8xcNPb-biT966-8xcP5U-9TW2tn-7z2qHX-bjrwUt-bjryvn-bjrxkD-bjsAhz-nbyq5u">Beverly Yuen Thompson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The student protests at the University of Missouri and on other campuses across the country have brought greater attention to the educational plight of black students. </p>
<p>The protests have exposed how experiences of black students in predominantly white campus environments are cloaked in isolation, invisibility and downright disregard for their rights.</p>
<p>Sadly, campus racism is not new, and neither are the demands of black student activists.</p>
<p>In my role as an associate professor of higher education and student affairs at Indiana University’s School of Education, I study black student experiences in college. </p>
<p>My book, <a href="https://sty.presswarehouse.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=148350">Culture Centers in Higher Education</a>, was the first to focus on the establishment of campus culture centers. These centers emerged as a result of the demands from activists during the student movements of the late 1960s to provide safe and welcoming spaces for students of color on campuses.</p>
<p>Over the past week, I have thought about the present context of black student protests in relation to the protests of their 1960s counterparts. And one thing is clear: the current student demands closely resemble those made by students in the 1960s. </p>
<h2>Pattern of demands</h2>
<p>Let’s look at students’ demands in the ‘60’s and '70’s to understand their similarity to today’s demands. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What did student demands look like in the 60s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/38971527@N04/5924946220/in/photolist-a2yU6b-a2yVeG-dS9vhT-fuPHRP-39mwr9-oT5RSF-dUMvPv-iyvDJK-o3uB2A-a2yViS-5g7api-jmjHm2-5THR7Q-o5eHsK-o5qKZY-a2w2F8-iyvq4w-o7j9Pt-o5x1BK-o5qDRf-dUMvtH-dUMvjX-dUMwDc-dUMvxc-dUMvoT-dUT6R5-dUTbh5-dUMw7i-dUMvAZ-o5eJKz-o5qu5y-o5qsqw-nN3zjA-7xJi3Y-fv4tSy-nN3vPE-jmmW3Q-jmmjUx-jmjEnB-dS9BDB-fv4tVL-dS9BEz-fuPbsM-vQenu3-fv4sXq-hU3wYU-dS9BEP-dSfnhS-5T2gq5-2vA6rS">Village Square</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Student demands typically included an increase in the number of faculty, greater recruitment and scholarships for black students, more courses on black history and black experiences in the curriculum, and setting up of a center to serve as a place of refuge from an otherwise racially hostile campus environment. </p>
<p>These early <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_college_student_development/v047/47.6patton.html">demand letters</a> dating back to the late '60’s often followed a similar structure, which included a preamble stating the overarching issue, followed by a list of demands. </p>
<p>For example, a November 1968 letter of <a href="http://cdm.reed.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/reedhisttxt&CISOPTR=17282&REC=9%22%22">student demands at Reed College</a> in Oregon started with the following preamble:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Reed is actively recruiting black students. They bring us here, force us to study the culture of our oppressors (Europe and America), and then neglect our own contributions to civilization. Black people are different. We come from a culture (history and language) and must face a different environment than white people after graduation. Reed does not answer this need.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They go on in this letter to ask for a black studies program. The Black Student Union asked to select the faculty who would teach in the program and wanted control over the curriculum until black faculty were hired to lead it. </p>
<p>Similar demand letters were drafted at other universities. </p>
<p>In May of 1968, the <a href="http://www.northeastern.edu/aai/about/history/">the Afro-American Association at Northeastern University</a>, based in Boston, demanded 50 scholarships for black students as well as curriculum changes to include an Afro-American literature course, an African language course and other cultural courses. They later expanded this initial set of demands to include a black studies program and the establishment of an African-American institute. </p>
<p>Two years later – on October 3 1970 – students at the University of Florida raised similar issues.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This university operates in such a manner as to unjustly exclude black students and professors, and to underemploy black personnel – and damn little is being done to correct the situation. On the contrary, many influential persons are operating under the illusion that progress has been made. To do so is to compare the present to the past without realizing that neither extends a modicum of justice to more than a handful of blacks. There have been many meetings and few results.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They continued with such demands as the recruitment and admission of more black students, establishment of a department of minority affairs and hiring more black faculty.</p>
<h2>Student demands in the present</h2>
<p>Fast-forward nearly 50 years and the demands from black student activists at the <a href="http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/mizzou-football/heres-list-demands-mizzous-protesting-athletes-students/">University of Missouri</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/13/minority-students-at-yale-give-list-of-demands-to-university-president/">Yale University</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/invisiblehawks">University of Kansas</a>, <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KM__SDc4-QaQKXyl_DYUlDKRjN0DgLN0xVln986LunI/mobilebasic?pli=1">Emory University</a>, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/UC-Berkeley-black-students-demand-fixes-to-6139786.php">UC Berkeley</a> and other schools across the country look eerily similar.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Today’s students are asking for many of the same things as the students in the ‘60’s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/codnewsroom/16467302850/in/photolist-r6aeqE-r69jxd-rnHEPa-ehCYFS-biT9tX-9NvF6h-iMeym-8j956y-8yQtot-biTaTz-j4f2XU-biTgPD-EzhCt-d4KaS5-bjrwNn-8x8whf-biThcF-zpW98K-arAn5P-8LodQi-AnSRD-9RzVV-8xdfcw-qqWBDz-9vkBZv-ehCYAj-ehCYzo-ehCYuo-ehxda4-ehCYyG-ehCYBL-ehxd6r-ehCYmh-ehxd5D-ehxdkX-88UpRE-ehCYDd-ehCYwf-7BTSgR-pw1ZMK-biTdGx-bjrxfH-hwerUr-ehCYEU-ehxdeg-ehxdbM-ehCYzm-ehCYD5-ehxd8e-ehxdg2">COD Newsroom</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.greensboro.com/news/schools/black-guilford-college-students-demand-better-treatment/article_6f7e3b73-c16f-5580-af3c-9fe8d63d55f9.html">Students</a> <a href="http://claremontindependent.com/cmc-students-feel-marginalized-demand-resources-and-resignations/">still want</a> a <a href="http://wtvr.com/2015/11/12/vcu-activists-march-into-presidents-building-demand-changes/">more inclusive</a> curriculum that reflects their experiences, an increase in black faculty, efforts to recruit and retain black students and establishment of a safe space on campus, such as a black culture center.</p>
<p>University administrators in the 1960s may have been unprepared for the influx of black students to their campuses, but it appears that even 50 years later, they <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/13/purdue-pres-mitch-daniels-calls-school-proud-contrast-to-missouri-and-yale-despite-own-history-of-unrest/">remain</a> <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/31/living/university-louisville-racist-staff-party-feat/">underprepared</a> and uninformed. </p>
<p>In the 1960s, students wanted more black people in faculty and leadership roles. Today, black faculty and administrators do exist but make up only a minuscule fraction of the entire faculty nationwide. </p>
<p>So, for instance, in 2013 only 6% of faculty were black, and in 2011 only 6% of college presidents were black. The fact is that an overwhelming <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Racial-Disparities-in-Higher/234129/">majority</a> of faculty and institutional leaders are white (80% and 90%, respectively). </p>
<p>Following their demands, many black students in the 1960s got <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.02/abc.160/abstract">culture centers</a>. However, <a href="http://diverseeducation.com/article/1952/">these</a> culture centers are <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/07/university_of_akron_layoffs_include_all_employees_in_multicultural_center_and_ua_press.html">typically deprioritized</a> and viewed as promoting separatism. </p>
<p>These days, institutions are <a href="http://cnycentral.com/news/local/ithaca-college-appoints-diversity-officer">appointing</a> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mizzou-diversity-officer_56422821e4b0411d3072a9e9">senior diversity officers</a> who serve as top campus administrators. Their <a href="http://www.lex18.com/story/7912120/college-appoints-its-first-chief-diversity-officer">role</a> is to conduct strategic planning and implementation of the large-scale diversity initiatives on campus. </p>
<p>Often, their division or department encompasses the work of culture centers. As a result, these senior-level administrators and their culture center counterparts are expected to “do diversity” while other campus entities are relinquished from the same responsibilities. </p>
<p>In addition, the strategic plans designed to foster diversity can often contribute to the negative racial climate on campus by relying on language that positions people of <a href="http://eaq.sagepub.com/content/43/5/586.short">color as outsiders</a>. </p>
<p>Ultimately, students of color feel excluded despite efforts to promote inclusivity. </p>
<p>Institutional responses to student protests of the past, in other words, have not resulted in steady progression. At best, it is a case of three steps forward and <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_higher_education/v080/80.4.harper.pdf">two steps backward</a>.</p>
<h2>Dealing with racial realities</h2>
<p>The point is that post-secondary institutions are simply unwilling, it seems, to engage in substantive change for racial progress. </p>
<p>The fact that demands of black student activists, both past and present, remain similar illustrates this reluctance. Black students <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2015/11/12/missouri-protests-embolden-student-leaders-on-other-campuses">continue</a> to be disenfranchised, which creates the ideal ground for <a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/education/7/71/496143/racism-lingering-problem-among-collegiate-millennials">more protests</a> to emerge. </p>
<p>Perhaps black student activists should be demanding something different. I am concerned that when institutions (attempt to) meet the commonly documented demands, it could make black students feel (even if momentarily) a false sense of vindication. </p>
<p>The reality is that little systemic change will take place as long as institutional leaders, faculty, curriculum and culture remain predominantly white. </p>
<p>Racism <a href="http://uex.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/01/0042085915602542.refs">flows throughout</a> post-secondary institutions in ordinary, predictable and taken-for-granted ways. For every effort made to meet student demands, several more incidents will create a negative campus racial climate. </p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean that the protests should stop.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lori Patton Davis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Here’s what black student activists were asking for 50 years ago. So, what changed?Lori Patton Davis, Associate Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/506392015-11-13T10:52:41Z2015-11-13T10:52:41ZThe long and troubled racial past of Mizzou<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101766/original/image-20151112-9362-zcqzm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why the racist incidents at Mizzou are not surprising.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cafnr/15465715968/in/photolist-pyDQxj-pR7tez-pyEnjQ-pRaG93-pRbyTu-pyBsJV-oUfy59-pyHne5-oUisAr-oUi9Zp-pRbshU-pyGvME-pRaFiL-oUi9c2-pRbgDu-pyEG5e-pyEdb9-pyBrUt-5mNbjo-5Jb15e-5JaZqa-5Jfgyd-4cFSyT-o5bafU-4swMoG-nSgZJ7-npSjxQ-npQ3Nt-nnMrgo-nrACtD-npxDCj-nrABEp-npQ3eH-nrAD1v-npxBDP-npSm8d-nnMs2m-npSkU7-nSgmbT-o9C8Zf-o9CPBb-omDgvm-o9BZcW-nSg8jb-nSgams-o7HqVy-nSgiC7-o7J813-o9FkSA-obyovV">CAFNR</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Perhaps on the outside looking in, the events at the University of Missouri appear baffling. They’re not. </p>
<p>I taught there from 1996 to 2008. The recent racist incidents and lackadaisical administration response, which sparked the amazing display of student solidarity, is part and parcel of a long-established pattern.</p>
<h2>Long history of racism</h2>
<p>Founded in 1839 in a slave state, the University of Missouri, known affectionately as Mizzou, is the state’s flagship, Research 1 campus. But even 100 years later it held fast to the slavery legacy. </p>
<p>In 1936, an African American, Lloyd Gaines, was denied admission to the Law School solely because he was black. Missouri’s constitution, <a href="http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?page=home;c=gnp">it was argued</a>, called for “separate education of the races.” </p>
<p>Gaines challenged the decision and won in front of the Supreme Court - in fact, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/305/337">the State of Missouri ex rel Gaines v Canada</a>, case is one of the key rulings on the road to the landmark <a href="http://www.civilrights.org/education/brown/?referrer=https://www.google.com/">Brown v Board of Education (1954)</a> decision. </p>
<p>In response, the university administration tried to do whatever it could to stop the enrollment of black students, including actually paying the tuition for African Americans to <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/305/337/case.html">receive an out-of-state education</a>. </p>
<p>Although the US Supreme Court ruled that Gaines had to be admitted, he never stepped foot into the Law School. In one of the great mysteries of the 20th century, Lloyd Gaines <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/us/12gaines.html?_r=0">simply disappeared</a>. </p>
<p>And for more than a decade <a href="http://gobcc.missouri.edu/about/notablefirst/">no black student entered</a> the university, despite the Gaines decision.</p>
<p>It was only in 1950, after another series of Supreme Court decisions – <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/339/629">Sweatt v Painter</a>, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/332/631/case.html">Sipuel v Oklahoma</a>, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/339/637">McLaurin v Oklahoma</a> – made clear that the walls of racial segregation were cracking in higher education, that the University of Missouri finally geared up to admit its first black student, <a href="http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/first-mu-african-american-graduate-student-speaks-to-inspired-audience/article_b75e9ab5-36a1-5602-a19a-1f6b4b354274.html">Gus T Ridgel</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101784/original/image-20151113-12382-nudv91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101784/original/image-20151113-12382-nudv91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101784/original/image-20151113-12382-nudv91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101784/original/image-20151113-12382-nudv91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101784/original/image-20151113-12382-nudv91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101784/original/image-20151113-12382-nudv91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101784/original/image-20151113-12382-nudv91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black students were not allowed on the campus before 1950.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nonorganical/9639246507/in/photolist-fFMEai-fFLSk8-fFLT9F-fG5gJA-fFMEuz-fG4sfY-fG4tSm-fFMFS6-fFLTAT-fFMERH-6gyCfe-fG4oSy-fFLRxX-fG5ViY-fFLRCZ-fFNkLv-fG5VHh-fFNkmv-fFLRQK-fG5V9q-fFLRKc-fG4rxy-fG5W8j-fFNkeR-fFNkEF-fFLRZF-fG5V21-5yMWjA-5yHDjM-5yMWdU-5yHD5v-5yHDhV-5yMWcA-5ELPXx-5ELL5K-5ELH24-aUrQ4M-fG5kv1-fG6dS5-fG6e33-fFNDC2-fFNDVR-fFNCXz-fG6ewN-fFLQBZ-fG6eFU-fFLQvZ-fFLQq4-fFLQTH-fG6eps">nonorganical</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But Ridgel lived alone because no white student would room with him. He <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/us/an-original-missouri-concerned-student-1950-speaks-at-age-89.html?_r=0">had to go off campus</a> to a coffeehouse because every social space on campus was “whites only.” </p>
<p>A telling memo in the university archives, which I uncovered in my research, shows that the only way the university prepared for this transformative moment was to search for someone on campus who could be a shoulder for Ridgel to cry on when the possible epithets, shunning, or outright blatant discrimination happened. </p>
<p>What the administration did not set out to do was to make the epithets, shunning, and blatant discrimination unacceptable and therefore unlikely. The onus, instead, would be on Ridgel to absorb the attacks, to figure out how to soldier on through the blows. </p>
<h2>Students organize but racism continues</h2>
<p>In the midst of our own struggles on the campus, I researched further into the university’s commitment and found that African American students in the late 1960s formed the <a href="http://mizzoulife.missouri.edu/legion-of-black-collegians-lbc/">Legion of Black Collegians</a>. They experienced a campus that hovered somewhere between being indifferent and decidedly hostile to their presence. </p>
<p>They strategized. They organized. They mobilized. </p>
<p>Three of their top demands were: hire African American faculty – there were none; establish a Black Studies program – there wasn’t one; and remove the 5 ½ ton <a href="http://umcspace.missouri.edu/historic/buildings/ConfederateRock/">“Confederate Rock”</a> – dedicated in 1935 and a symbol of the state’s struggle to hold onto its slave owning past – from its prominent place on the campus. </p>
<p>It was only through a long series of protests and meetings that the students’ <a href="http://umcspace.missouri.edu/historic/buildings/ConfederateRock/files/confederate%20memorial%20rock%20may%20get%20new%20home%20soon.txt">demands were met</a>. But, as is the nature of Mizzou, it was not quite a victory. </p>
<p>For example, the so-called <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/african-american-response-to-confederate-memorial-rock-at-mu">Confederate Rock</a>, a memorial to Missouri men who fought for the South, finally got dislodged from the university only to be relocated a few blocks away to the courthouse, which backs right up against the black neighborhood in Columbia, Missouri. The rock has been at the courthouse for more than 40 years. </p>
<p>It has taken the recent race-related killings on June 17, 2015 at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston to <a href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/local/county-plans-to-move-confederate-rock/article_d446a6f8-f379-5408-8343-dae57d17790b.html">reignite the debate</a> over where the rock should be sited. </p>
<h2>Faculty faces racism</h2>
<p>Then there are issues that confront black faculty. Despite students’ enormous efforts, the administration managed to undermine the issue of black faculty.</p>
<p>Records in the university archive make clear that nearly a decade after the student uprisings of the 1960s, the administration, ostensibly to deal with budgetary concerns, decided to reorganize and close several departments. </p>
<p>As the target list began to circulate, one administrator noted that the majority of all African American faculty were located in the departments slated for closure.</p>
<p>The administration’s documented response was a simple, “yes, we know.” They then proceeded to shut down those departments. </p>
<p>As is documented in a memo, dated April 1982, kept in the University of Missouri Archives, the number of African American faculty subsequently plummeted. This then led to a <a href="http://facultycouncil.missouri.edu/news/UMC%20Final%20Report%20422041%201.pdf">mediation agreement</a> in 1988 between the US Department of Justice, the <a href="http://www.naacp.org/">National Association for the Advancement of Colored People</a>, and the university to address the problem. Mizzou promised to do better.</p>
<p>However, between the late 1990s to the early 2000s, there were fewer than 50 black faculty (out of more than 1,500 total) at Mizzou. </p>
<p>I personally observed an onslaught of racist incidents. In one such incident, a white student, angry with her grade, cursed at an African American professor in the classroom and followed the faculty member all the way into the department’s office swearing the entire time. </p>
<p>I worked with the faculty member as she tried in vain to get someone in the university to condemn the student’s actions. </p>
<p>In another case, I watched another professor being denied tenure by her department because her research and teaching – the attributes for which she was allegedly hired – were about African Americans and, therefore, “not mainstream.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101785/original/image-20151113-12409-58a2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101785/original/image-20151113-12409-58a2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101785/original/image-20151113-12409-58a2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101785/original/image-20151113-12409-58a2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101785/original/image-20151113-12409-58a2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101785/original/image-20151113-12409-58a2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101785/original/image-20151113-12409-58a2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The only reason the university paid attention this time was because of the football team.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jahofker/5230110711/in/photolist-8YaFGB-fJ79RS-8xJzER-8YdJVN-pagfXQ-pa2G62-oSMRqr-oSNQKK-oSNf29-ggM4nK-ggMjdg-ggM2vR-8xMxXw-8xMGnC-fHPyMx-ggLRpD-ggM3zL-ggM3cS-ggLPbb-ggLNrV-ggM9ak-ggM3RV-ggLTkU-ggMbJP-ggLHPs-ggM2ts-ggLEwW-ggLWfv-ggM47V-ggMpD6-ggLZSG-ggMdSg-ggMkk6-ggLTVv-8xJHzi-8xMKfu-ggMjsp-ggM4iD-ggLBjU-ggM5aP-ggM1DF-fJ7aM1-8xJAf2-73xQzP-pa2yVv-p8g6AQ-oSMEVt-oSNnAh-73zwng-8pgeo1">jahofker</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Eventually, as the <a href="http://facultycouncil.missouri.edu/news/UMC%20Final%20Report%20422041%201.pdf">incidents mounted,</a> black faculty mobilized. We gathered oral histories. We collected data. We pored through the university archives to discern the patterns. And we met with the provost and the chancellor repeatedly. But nothing happened. The administration urged the African American professors to “just let it go.” </p>
<p>As has happened now, it was only through the intervention of the head coach of a prominent high school basketball program, that the administration <a href="http://digmo-01.missouri.edu/a/80284/deaton-moves-minority-affairs/">agreed to take some action</a>. </p>
<p>This happened in 2004.</p>
<h2>Will the resignation have any meaning?</h2>
<p>Eleven years later, African American students at the University of Missouri have experienced this same phenomenon. </p>
<p>Once again, they brought the evidence to the administration. They met. They discussed. One student even went on a hunger strike. But, once again, nothing happened. </p>
<p>Black students, apparently, were just supposed to “let it go,” absorb the hit, take the blows, and soldier on. </p>
<p>The administration did eventually decide to take action but only when the football players threatened to boycott the season and the university, it seems, saw a threat to the athletic revenue stream. </p>
<p>The resignations, however, will have no meaning if the university does what it has done before: abdicate responsibility for courageous, effective leadership and expect strong African Americans to just “let it go,” absorb the hit, take the blows, and soldier on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50639/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carol Anderson received funding from the University of Missouri and the University of Missouri System. While a faculty member at the University of Missouri-Columbia, I received several research grants for my work, which was subsequently published.</span></em></p>I taught at Mizzou from 1996 to 2008. Here’s why the events don’t surprise me.Carol Anderson, Professor and Chair of African American Studies, Emory UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.