Life as a College Student in a PWI: Student Movements
In 2015, the college student lead protests at Mizzou started a movement across the nation of black students that were angry with how they were being treated PWI's. At the University of Missouri Protest, students blocked the President’s car during the homecoming parade chanting and then proceeded to issue a list of demands as under an internet username, “Concerned Student 1950”. These demands included that President Wolfe issue an apology, that he create a plan to increase the number of black faculty members, that President Wolfe’s resign or removal from his position as president of the University of Missouri”. The protest and issue of demands are examples of external transformational justice, and the students strategically used the pseudonym Concerned Student 1950, to protect their identities. This movement not only inspired black students at PWI's to fight back against the administration, but its list of demands inspired many of these other black educational movements
For Example, Occidental College's, Oxy United for Black Liberation ‘s protest was inspired by the University of Missouri protests. The protest was used as a vehicle for students to confront the authority (administration mainly the school president) about their experiences at OXY and give him a list of their demands of how the school needed to accommodate black students Some of the demands included,
“The demilitarization of Campus Safety”, the establishment of a Black Studies Program the appointment of a CDO that the students help to choose, $60,000 given to the Diversity and Equity Board and an increase the percentage of tenured faculty of color. The protest had a critique on multiple functions of the university. For example, the lack of culturally relevant pedagogy adopted into the curriculum. The lack of funding towards student programming for students of color, and the lack of tenured faculty of color that could serve as mentors to students, without fear of losing their job.
Oxy United for Black Liberation also constructed an occupation movement where students lived in the Administration Building of Occidental College from Monday through Friday (add dates later). They petitioned to hold all classes at this building and most professors agreed to doing so. The point of this occupation was for black students to reclaim their space on campus. The press also came to speak to students that were apart of the movement. The occupation worked to create a safe space for black students on campus. Once the movement had ended students who participated were given flags and encouraged to place the flags any where on campus they felt uncomfortable as an act of reclaiming their own space throughout school.
These student movements practiced transformational resistance by using their voices to reclaim their roles as black students on campus whose experiences are valid, they went to the press and inspired other black college students to raise their voice and challenge their position as tokenized black people being used to make the school look diverse.
List of other colleges that also protested in Solidarity with Mizzou (If I missed any please comment below)
Yale
St. Johns University
Syracuse University
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Ithaca College
University of Kansas in Lawrence
Claremont McKenna College
Howard University (HBCU that stood in solidarity with black students that attended PWI's)
Smith College
UCLA
Purdue University
USC
Brown University
Wichita State University
Vanderbilt University
University of Connecticut
University of Alabama
To all the black students that lead these movements in solidarity with Mizzou, thank you and a special thanks to the students who ran the Mizzou student movement you inspired a movement across the nation of black students who were tokenized and mistreated by the white administration, faculty, and students thank you for demonstrating what transformational resistance is and inspiring black students across the nation to raise their voice.
