Student Leadership
When I was elected Student Association President of a faith-based university in the South, I decided to use my platform to be a living, walking bridge for all cultures around me. Since the institution became the most diverse university in the South, it has had growing pains, several of which had not been acknowledged until my tenure as president. Using my platform, I not only launched a prevalent theme, but assisted the university’s administration, faculty, and staff in leading the charge against the realities, perceptions, and misunderstandings of racism, discrimination, prejudice, as well as the history of the institution. Through my leadership and assistance, the institution launched a search for its own Vice President of Unity and Inclusion.
Campaign Season —> Redefining Our Culture —> Diversity Education Exchange Program —> Making History Real —> Diversity Crisis —> Celebrating a Multicultural Performance Night —> Commemorating Culture at Graduation
Campaign Season
I’d lived in seven different states and attended over ten different schools before I arrived in college. After a few years of schooling, I felt called to do something bigger than myself and ran for Student Association President. I ran with a platform of unity in diversity and wanted to totally redefine our culture to be more inclusive, empathetic, and understanding of all different people. I directed all of my campaign videos with the help of various friends.
Redefining Our Culture
Known for being perceived as a White and racist institution, I was determined to change that through all of our media. By working with our campus library and Marketing and University Relations, I was able to spearhead media lists for students, faculty, and staff who were interested in reading about the people groups around them. On campus, banners proclaimed my message of “This Is Us: Diverse, United, Called.”
Diversity Education Exchange Program with sister HBCU campus
D.E.E.P. (Diversity Education Exchange Program) was a program started by my institution and the neighboring HBCU some two hours away to further connect our universities. Through the years, it has been an exchange program, a religious service, and even a faculty/staff retreat. Since it was canceled the year before I became President, I wanted to revitalize the relationship and give it a theme of its own: Redefinition.
After my institution’s fiasco in February, I also visited our sister HBCU campus and gave a speech to students, faculty, and staff asking specifically for their help, prayers, and support as we navigated through a particularly jarring issue. With careful planning, I was able to reserve an hour with their university president, key leaders, as well as the United Student Movement (Student Association) of the university to continue to build a bridge of collaboration for the future.
“My university has had some deep-rooted, institutional issues for a very long time. Its values for over a century have been dominated by Eurocentric conservatism and traditions. All of us in this room have been told one great thing about my university for our entire lives. Our families know it, our pastors, our friends tell us, and the ugly history has reminded us.. my university is a racist institution.
But here’s what we’re doing to change the narrative and perception. This is where we need each other...”
Making History Real: The Little Rock Nine
As part of my ongoing efforts of “This Is Us,” and sharing the stories of real-life historical figures and different students throughout the year, I invited Terrence Roberts, Ph.D, a member of the Little Rock Nine, to address my university.
The Little Rock Nine were a group of African American students chosen to attend the all-White Little Rock Central High School after the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court decision.
Diversity Crisis of February 2018
On the night of February 3rd, 2018, a Snapchat account posted a video during the Black Christian Union Night at my university. The video was captioned with a racial slur meant to demean all Black people, and shared virally on Twitter. Instead of allowing a single individual to ruin what was otherwise a positive night for the institution, I responded to the racially-charged antics and trolling with a level-headed, researched response and was challenged to handle myself accordingly as I came under fire from outsiders on social media. During this time, I had already had plans to help the institution learn how to corporately celebrate Black History Month; however, those plans were altered when the President and his Cabinet asked, specifically, for my assistance.
My goals:
Address, acknowledge, and apologize for racist past and perpetuated culture within the institution through video and all other media.
Create a mandatory diversity education program for faculty, staff, and students.
Craft an official statement that says that the institution has a zero tolerance policy for racism and bigotry on campus.
Create an Office of Diversity and Inclusion—a Vice President position.
Work with Admissions, Enrollment, and Marketing and University Relations to create an intentional image of the most diverse university in the South.
Create a visible progress report for transparency with all constituents.
Publicly acknowledge the students through time who have worked hard to make a difference.
“If our university was a 126-year-old man living in a nursing home, it is your responsibility as President and Vice Presidents to act as his nurses and doctors. Since this old man has done horrible deeds in the past and cannot speak for himself, it is up to you to speak up for him and apologize on his behalf, even if you feel it is not your burden.”
- My Message to the President and Vice Presidents of my university, February 5th, 2018
Spectrum Magazine covered the aftermath of BCU Night 2018. I was asked for a comment, which is linked.
Ryan Becker, creator of the podcast, Absurdity, interviewed me as I was in the midst of addressing our racism fiasco. You can listen to his podcast, from February 9th, 2018, in the link.
I was trusted to address the Greater Chattanooga community on the local news about our fiasco.
At the Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church, Pastor Dave Ferguson used his platform to talk about what was going on around the institution. At 51:20, you will find his message to his congregation and the students about me and students of color.
“This is our son. These are our daughters. And we ought leverage our lives on behalf of one another…” - Pastor Dave Ferguson, “Legends: Waiting to Pounce”, February 10th, 2018.
My campus administration apologizes for its treatment of people of color in the past. I helped come up with the idea of doing a video that would outline all of the plans to be institutionally inclusive.
“If our university was in a perpetual basketball game, this is how it looks like to students of color: It’s the second quarter of the game. We’re playing against a team full of racist bigots, and they have the ball. As they charge through the lane to dunk on all of us, we instead poke the ball loose and it sails out of bounds. We feel as though we have won the game and that Racism has lost, but it always comes back to play again. As a university, our job is to steal the ball away and dunk on the other side of the court. Until we do that, we’re in trouble.”
- My Message to the President and Vice Presidents of my university, February 5th, 2018
This Is Us: A Multicultural Performance Night
This Is Us was my brainchild. Conceived by mixing Michael Jackson’s ill-fated concert tour, “This Is It” with my message of unity, “This Is Us” was a multicultural performance night and initiative aimed at helping all people see that “more connects us than separates us.” Through extensive event planning, managing a $10,000 budget, and delegating to various friends and helping hands, the three-hour-long program became the most attended event and production of the school year. From multicultural food from all over the world, to an endearing tale of a hero who must equip himself with armor to defeat a symbolic evil, to musical performances from our sister HBCU, This Is Us was an event to remember for the ages.
Acknowledgments
When the year ended, as well as the program, “This Is Us,” I was met with a humbling standing ovation from a full gymnasium—a standing ovation I’d never asked for. I was a full-time college student who’d put aside my own personal matters to contend with issues bigger than myself. In the end, my dream did come true. The university is actively planning to do very many of the things I had suggested, the Marketing and University Relations team included me in their magazine about the institution’s history, and I directed a farewell video that included a special thank you to the students who believed in our shared dream. My run is over, but I expect to one day put on those shoes and run for a mission greater than myself some time in the near future.
“We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.”
Commemorating Culture at Graduation, Continuing the Fight
After my term as president ended, I independently tackled the Eurocentric customs and traditions held at the university’s graduation services. In the 2018-2019 school year, I directly challenged the university to hold true to their claims that the university would be, “A place where it cannot be said that we do not care about, listen to, or support, or nurture all of our students and employees…[and] a model for racial harmony in a world increasingly divided and hateful.” Through cultural commemoration, I hoped the university would follow through with its promises: