I am shocked at the amount of misinformation that is conveyed in this piece, and being presented as facts in this respectable publication. The author has included a significant amount of supposition and conjecture to curate this article. It’s creative fiction at best!
Did you even bother to contact anyone to validate your far fetched concepts about “support” and the source of discontent as the reason for the student protest. You clearly have no clue about the mechanics of the #BlackburnTakeover movement played out on center stage at Howard University or behind the stage on campus. We’re you there? Or were you watching virtually distanced on the sidelines?
As one of the FounderS and the current President of the Capstone Group, I know for a fact you that you didn’t bother to contact us. Given your position, and apparent expressed bias, I would venture to say that you probably didn’t reach out to the students or Howard Alumni United or any other non student groups -such as the NAACP national office, D9 organizations, Black Vote Matter, Congressional elected representatives (Rep Pressley, Rep Bush and Rep Warren) or social justice stalwarts (Reverend Barber, Reverend Jackson, Reverend Thomas etc;), Mayor Ras Baraka to name just a few of the notables who were also “participants” and instrumental in playing a role in helping to address the myriad of issues related to the current students concerns of this recent Howard University protest...
So, my thoughts are that before you go about mis-representing the essential “facts“ that you need to do the due diligence. You need to take time to do your homework before putting pen to paper. After you have the facts, then perhaps you can print an apology for your gross mal formed assumptions. Unless of course your intent was only to offer up an opinion.
I'm not quite sure how to feel about organizations like the Live Movement, advising HBCU student protests. It worries me a little. However, I probably would have said the same thing in the 60s when the NAACP, SCLC advised HBCU student protests that would help form SNCC, which would then do the exact same thing. I think the column itself is very shortsighted and lacks context.
"It is horrifying to think back to previous protests and remember how they can create inquiries and spur investigations. Remember the 2018 nine-day A Building occupation? That episode led to Howard being placed on Heightened Cash Monitoring status after select Bison also muddied a public occupation with ulterior agendas. "
When the Department of Educations comes out and says there are "serious administrative capability issues" at the university, identified in audits from 2015 through 2017 and again during a program review in 2018. I'm actually not quite sure how you can even begin to place blame on the students or insinuate that they were the problem. Who cares if the whistleblower had ulterior motives, or whatever gossip you want to feed into. The fact of the matter, which is supported by the Department of Education, is that the administration is still 100% at fault. Blaming student protests is a terrible and more importantly, inaccurate, conclusion to make.
"They know that the issues plaguing Howard (and other HBCUs) are systemic and directly related to historic underfunding and unaddressed maintenance due to the same. "
There are also *administrative* issues that plague Howard and are systemic, see above and contribute to these situations. These issues also plague many other HBCUs. Let's not forget that.
"Suppose public officials are willing to use misguided student angst as political backdrops, and the federal government feels forced to scrutinize schools as a showing of engagement. What chance do HBCUs have at surviving in the court of public opinion?"
The fact that this is even a discussion when discussing Howard is laughable in the first place.
Poor administrations, not students. " drove away suspicious alumni from giving or giving a damn about the school, maybe forever."
Anywho, student protests are in the DNA of HBCUs. They won't stop, will continue to occur, and should continue to occur. They will always be unpopular with administrations and boards. They are effective vehicles for change and an effective student check on an administration. An objective look at the history of protests at our institutions would show you that students oftentimes have shown more foresight than their administrations. Am I saying Howard students were right in this case? No. Am I saying they are right more often than they are wrong? Yes.
Anywho, to suggest Howard is going to really suffer from this once again misguided if you extrapolate from the actual data they have reported over the years.
I'll wait on the Ed News Flash column bashing the Tuskegee Marching Band, but I doubt that will occur since that administration gave into their demands.
It does not surprise me that politicians, especially Democrats jump on a bandwagon without doing thorough research about their role and responsibilities in situations like Howard. From my experience in federal compliance, politicians are quick to jump on the bandwagon until someone “reminds” about their ties. All of a sudden, they are silent or plead the 5th. Howard may have been in the wrong for the housing situation, but the administration handling in the PR department and “schooling” people about their roles and responsibilities was tepid. As mentioned by Ozum (sic) during a previous AfterDark post, many in the administration may need to call it quits due to the continued PR issues. Hiring competent PR people is one, but the administration needs to establish a better compliance personnel that can help with minimizes risks and perform the necessary checks and balances that include identifying weaknesses and strengths. Hmm, I may be available for technical assistance with my federal experience. I will be waiting for that phone call to make my services available.
@Author and Editor
I am shocked at the amount of misinformation that is conveyed in this piece, and being presented as facts in this respectable publication. The author has included a significant amount of supposition and conjecture to curate this article. It’s creative fiction at best!
Did you even bother to contact anyone to validate your far fetched concepts about “support” and the source of discontent as the reason for the student protest. You clearly have no clue about the mechanics of the #BlackburnTakeover movement played out on center stage at Howard University or behind the stage on campus. We’re you there? Or were you watching virtually distanced on the sidelines?
As one of the FounderS and the current President of the Capstone Group, I know for a fact you that you didn’t bother to contact us. Given your position, and apparent expressed bias, I would venture to say that you probably didn’t reach out to the students or Howard Alumni United or any other non student groups -such as the NAACP national office, D9 organizations, Black Vote Matter, Congressional elected representatives (Rep Pressley, Rep Bush and Rep Warren) or social justice stalwarts (Reverend Barber, Reverend Jackson, Reverend Thomas etc;), Mayor Ras Baraka to name just a few of the notables who were also “participants” and instrumental in playing a role in helping to address the myriad of issues related to the current students concerns of this recent Howard University protest...
So, my thoughts are that before you go about mis-representing the essential “facts“ that you need to do the due diligence. You need to take time to do your homework before putting pen to paper. After you have the facts, then perhaps you can print an apology for your gross mal formed assumptions. Unless of course your intent was only to offer up an opinion.
I'm not quite sure how to feel about organizations like the Live Movement, advising HBCU student protests. It worries me a little. However, I probably would have said the same thing in the 60s when the NAACP, SCLC advised HBCU student protests that would help form SNCC, which would then do the exact same thing. I think the column itself is very shortsighted and lacks context.
"It is horrifying to think back to previous protests and remember how they can create inquiries and spur investigations. Remember the 2018 nine-day A Building occupation? That episode led to Howard being placed on Heightened Cash Monitoring status after select Bison also muddied a public occupation with ulterior agendas. "
When the Department of Educations comes out and says there are "serious administrative capability issues" at the university, identified in audits from 2015 through 2017 and again during a program review in 2018. I'm actually not quite sure how you can even begin to place blame on the students or insinuate that they were the problem. Who cares if the whistleblower had ulterior motives, or whatever gossip you want to feed into. The fact of the matter, which is supported by the Department of Education, is that the administration is still 100% at fault. Blaming student protests is a terrible and more importantly, inaccurate, conclusion to make.
"They know that the issues plaguing Howard (and other HBCUs) are systemic and directly related to historic underfunding and unaddressed maintenance due to the same. "
There are also *administrative* issues that plague Howard and are systemic, see above and contribute to these situations. These issues also plague many other HBCUs. Let's not forget that.
"Suppose public officials are willing to use misguided student angst as political backdrops, and the federal government feels forced to scrutinize schools as a showing of engagement. What chance do HBCUs have at surviving in the court of public opinion?"
What data is behind your claims that the court of public opinion even matters for a school like Howard? I would argue that the data would support that Howard has the longest leash of any HBCU. Consider what happened in 2014 with the change of leadership and national coverage from media titans like: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/education/edlife/a-historically-black-college-is-rocked-by-the-economy-infighting-and-a-changing-demographic.html .. How did enrollment suffer? Did it succeed in "driving potential students and their families away from enrolling at the school."? Glance at the data and argue that this did or any major event has. Howard's enrollment at an undergraduate nor graduate level suffered at all. We can play the same game with the 2018 Protests: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/us/howard-university-scandal.html .. Again, did enrollment suffer? https://ira.howard.edu/institutional-research/institutional-data Maybe, I'm blind. But I don't know too many HBCUs that could have as many incidents in the past decade and double their endowment from FY20 to FY21.
The fact that this is even a discussion when discussing Howard is laughable in the first place.
Poor administrations, not students. " drove away suspicious alumni from giving or giving a damn about the school, maybe forever."
Anywho, student protests are in the DNA of HBCUs. They won't stop, will continue to occur, and should continue to occur. They will always be unpopular with administrations and boards. They are effective vehicles for change and an effective student check on an administration. An objective look at the history of protests at our institutions would show you that students oftentimes have shown more foresight than their administrations. Am I saying Howard students were right in this case? No. Am I saying they are right more often than they are wrong? Yes.
Anywho, to suggest Howard is going to really suffer from this once again misguided if you extrapolate from the actual data they have reported over the years.
I'll wait on the Ed News Flash column bashing the Tuskegee Marching Band, but I doubt that will occur since that administration gave into their demands.
It does not surprise me that politicians, especially Democrats jump on a bandwagon without doing thorough research about their role and responsibilities in situations like Howard. From my experience in federal compliance, politicians are quick to jump on the bandwagon until someone “reminds” about their ties. All of a sudden, they are silent or plead the 5th. Howard may have been in the wrong for the housing situation, but the administration handling in the PR department and “schooling” people about their roles and responsibilities was tepid. As mentioned by Ozum (sic) during a previous AfterDark post, many in the administration may need to call it quits due to the continued PR issues. Hiring competent PR people is one, but the administration needs to establish a better compliance personnel that can help with minimizes risks and perform the necessary checks and balances that include identifying weaknesses and strengths. Hmm, I may be available for technical assistance with my federal experience. I will be waiting for that phone call to make my services available.