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How can HBCUS better Accommodate to Student Living By Yvette Chambliss

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Yvette Chambliss

Rebecca Weaver 

Section 304 English 1102

21 April 2022

What can colleges do to better Accommodate to student living 

 Historically Black Colleges and Universities are now one of the most growing private schools in American. These colleges hold so many triumphs of historically African Americans who have made an impact on the world today who have contributed back to the Hbcus in so many ways by funding, holding fantastic events where African American students can come together and enjoy themselves as one. Unfortunately HBCUS are fairly looked down upon just for being an all Black college and University where the expenses are not properly funded  to one of the most important issues till this day with HBCUS dormitories, so what can HBCUS do better to accommodate student living.    

 

Renovation issues with dormitory and the poor environments

Howard university was founded in 1867 and is still standing in 2022, now that’s a very long time. The dormitories probably went through a couple of renovations here and there throughout the year, but this wasn’t enough to sufficiently place students in these dormitories to live in for at least a year or the rest of these students four- year of college experience. In the article  “ Howard University students reach an agreement with officials after a month of protest” Jonathan Franklin states “Since the start of the fall semester, students say they’ve raised concerns to campus administrators regarding mold in the walls of their dorms, the lack of COVID-19 testing for students and the overall safety on campus, according to DCist/WAMU” (Jonthan franklin par. 10). where students started to notice mold growing on walls and their belongings where students could not continue to stay in these hostile environments. Students who literally forced to move out of their dorm because of how life threatening it would be for them to even be in a literal toxic environment, as Jonathan claims “ Frederick stated that mold was discovered in 41 out of 2,700 rooms on campus, with some of the damage being the result of “accidental human error.” ( Jonathan para.11). Students that felt as if the administration were not quick to initiate the problem would just get worse. 

  

      A month later  in Atlanta, Georgia, Spelman University an all African American women’s university, Clark Atlanta University, and Morehouse University  an all black African American university all very Popular HBCUs who are experiencing some of the same conceptions and issues as Howard university. In the article “Atlanta HBCU Students Demand Better Housing Conditions, More Funding” Valencia Jones states “They say there’s been mold and leaking pipes, particularly at Clark Atlanta”(Valencia para.3) the minor things that these HBCUS could have fixed these maintenance issues that have resulted in major issues that now has caused an outbreak of rage for student.” Tuesday marked the second day of protests near the Atlanta University Center. “The dorms that we do have, many of them have things such as mold. I personally have a friend who had a dryer fire in her dorm,” said Marcellus Kirkland, a Morehouse student and protest organizer.”(Valencia para.2)  As Black African American students who had to deal with these hostile environments that not just affect them physically but mentally. Not knowing if they would be allowed to have anywhere permit to stay while still attending school, when it felt as if these students who worked so hard to get accepted into these schools.

 

HBCU Protesting Movement

 

protest

Picture taken by ABC News story by Briana Stewart (students protesting by sleeping in tents outside buildings on campus about housing issues) 

 The only way that these Howard University students could get their Universities attention was to have a mass protest that started at Howard for a month where students would camp outside of the  buildings. In the article “Black leaders rally around Howard University students protesting poor living conditions on campus” Nicquel Terry Ellis and Jennifer Henderson claim” Students at the historically Black college in Washington, DC, have been assembling for sit-ins at the school’s Blackburn University Center with tents, air mattresses and sleeping bags, demanding that Howard leadership address their concerns. The sit-in, which has been dubbed #BlackburnTakeover on social media, started on October 12.”( Ellis and Henderson para 1). This protest turned into a movement from different parts of the country that affected other HBCUS that are experiencing the same problems as Howard University, where they also participated in the protest. In the article “ Howard University Students Stage Sit-In Over Issues With Mold And COVID Safety” Domonique Mari Bonessi and Dee Dwyer claim “Students with the group Live Movement a coalition of students from historically Black colleges and universities who advocate for education reform, began their sit-in at the Blackburn University Center” (Bonessi and Dwyer para 1). The entire issue was that every HBCU had almost similar issues to other HBCUS when it came to the Colleges and Universities housing situations.

 

HBCU Funding 

  

HBCUS are private schools where the majority of the student body applies for scholarships or that they either receive to go toward funding of these schools and then to have a prolonged education. Students tend to pay more than a regular university by at least 20 thousand more. Especially if not in state it’s much cheaper but going to a private university requires a lot more money. In the article “Atlanta HBCU Students Demand Better Housing Conditions, More Funding” Valencia Jones states “Students are also protesting high student loan debt and blaming the Biden Administration for cutting proposed federal education funding from $45 billion to $2 billion, which is a major blow to HBCUs.” ( Valencia para.3). Majority of these students are paying immaculate amounts of money to attend these schools where they can’t keep up with housing and maintenance issues for students to stay and fulfill these poor environments . This is clear that African Americans are not taken care of properly especially financially. Even though there have been large donations that have been given to these colleges and universities by alumni who all attended Howard University like Taraji Henson, Kamala Harris, and Chadwick Boseman who have had a great impact on this school from holding speeches to their greatly impacted donations that went toward these maintenance issues.

 As some who don’t know, you can donate to HBCUS across America. That would make a difference of the 75% of  African American students who attend these Colleges and Universities that need financial assistance. This foundation is called “The HBCU Foundation Giving to the Historically Black Colleges and Universities” anything could help that can go toward students’ books, other important school supplies, clubs, any part of these HBCUS  students’ lives that need assistance.

 

Conclusion

   

HBCUS are still one of the most proud landmarks of African American history that make up who Black Africans Americans are today. It’s disappointing to see what our ancestors worked so hard for, that as a community we have not taken care to progress in education; for students to have a healthy work environment. Just to do what we were doing years prior, protesting for our voices to be heard.

 

Works Cited

Jonthan Franklin “ Howard University students reach an agreement with officials after a month of protest” ( paragraph 10-11) 

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/15/1055929172/howard-university-students-end-protest-housing-agreement

 

Valencia Jones  “Atlanta HBCU Students Demand Better Housing Conditions, More Funding”    ( paragraph 2-3)

https://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2021/10/22/atlanta-hbcu-students-demand-better-housing-conditions-more-funding/

 

 Nicquel Terry Ellis and Jennifer Henderson, CNN  “Black leaders rally around Howard University students protesting poor living conditions on campus”

(  paragraph 1)

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/29/us/howard-university-living-conditions/index.html

 

Domonique Mari Bonessi and Dee Dwyer “ Howard University Students Stage Sit-In Over Issues With Mold And COVID Safety” ( paragraph 1)

https://dcist.com/story/21/10/13/howard-university-sit-in-blackburn/

“Colorado state University” Summary/Analysis/ Response (SAR) Paper

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Yvette Chambliss

Professor Weaver

English comp 1102

08 March 2022

“Colorado state University” Summary/Analysis/ Response (SAR) Paper

Summary

    Colorado State University is a research college located in Fort Collins Colorado. This is a very technical institution college that encourages students to be social and get involved with other curricular activities. They list ‘’passions” are available to ” explore” this program, it spotlights athletics programs like track and field, basketball, and softball. They offer career choices or in their words “passions’ ‘ like agricultural science, business, engineering. this school because it focuses on the social part of college that can help you in your future career.

 

Analysis 

    Colorado State University is a great example of the rhetorical strategies of Audience and Imaging the ideal reader. Colorado state does a great job on persuading the type of students they want at their school and what a college should look like. When students are applying for colleges, they want something that provides them with what they need to start their career path and what their four-year plan should consist of while staying at Colorado State University. Their target audience would be students who are very social and willing to participate in school activities and have a plan on what their life will be like when being accepted into Colorado State University.

        The target audience which are transfers and undergrad students are looking for a school that provides them with technical science, and business careers. According to the Colorado state university website it says “exploring Colorado” (CSU, Home page ). This gives students a chance to research their passions and what students are looking for to see if this school and what it offers is the best pick for. According to the Colorado state website there’s an icon titled “Engagements” (CSU, Engagements). They also allow you to look up certain clubs and programs that help the college and outside community develop social skills that help the environment. This allows students to participate in activities that involve school to help the environment, and to get the community involved.

     Colorado State University does an excellent job using the rhetorical strategy Imaging the Ideal Reader by grabbing the student’s attention when opening the website. According to Colorado State university they show students getting involved in these curricular activities and other partakes in the student life that shows how the school functions (CSU, Homepage). This demonstrates what audience they persuade that want to apply for their college. According to Colorado State University in the “Academics” icon they have where you can do more research on a certain passion you may have or that can be like what a student may be looking for in their career choice (CSU, Academics).  When Students are looking for a career, they are looking for they want to know what exactly they are going to be studying, in this case if a student wants to know more about what they’re going to be learning. That’s why it’s great that Colorado State provides that type of research for students, so they’ll know what they’ll be studying for the next four years of their career.

       Colorado State attracts its students more on the social side of college because at times students are going to need that social aspect in college. According to Colorado State University, they have an athletics program where they show the different sports, spirit weeks, times, and dates for the games, and some of the highlights from certain sports teams to show their achievements they’ve accomplished (CSU, Athletics). Majority of the students that want to attend colleges look for schools who have an athletics program, so that students can be involved with their school more often. Since this college focuses on the environment and how to help the community more, they want people to be involved in these activities. According to Colorado state university they have community outreaches to help out by taking care of the environment in the community, and learning new things that can help those students who are developing their career or even beginning their career ( CSU, Economics and community outreach).these outreaches were so that students could help out the community, but also the community could help them in return by holding fundraisers for certain clubs that consist or a student’s career choice or curricular activities.

    When students are looking for schools, they want a university that will accommodate their needs and services to what this school has to offer. Students at Colorado State University can benefit off the thorough research that they allow students to access when looking for their “passion”. Knowing there are colleges that just let you pick a career without knowing what students are studying. Luckly Colorado state wants students to keep “Charging Forward”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Response

I would consider going to Colorado state university because this college would allow me to be a more social college student. By encouraging me to get involved with my school and to become more social instead of staying to myself. During our free writing professor Weaver asked us what other colleges we would have gone to besides Georgia state university and my response was Southern University and Hbcu located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana because of the social events for business students and African American like myself to connect with others that would benefit my career choice. Because I feel like when it comes to college that will best suit me, I want to find as much diversity and similarities and possible to get different takes on the different aspects of other people’s lives.

   I like the fact that they call their careers “passions “because whatever I want to pursue in my life or whatever I’m gifted in that is a passion, what I initially have an equipped love for. A lot of colleges were more strictly focused on your career and felt like an in and out process to just get what you came for and go. When in my college experience I prefer to have a more social aspect of it because I’m more of a social person that doesn’t want to be kept from any opportunity that some colleges may not have for me, even though the goal is to be connected as much as possible  

Works Cited

https://www.colostate.edu/                 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_State_University

About Kevin Bibiano Valdivia

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“ Enthusiastic, Determine and Artistic is how I would describe my academic self.” Kevin is 17 years old  born and raised in Atlanta Georgia , a junior in high school and attends DECA Dekalb Early College Academy. This is a program where they allow students that are more in a academic environment , where juniors and seniors are placed in a dual enrollment and attend the GSU Clarkston campus. This is a required course for the students where they can only attend the Clarkston campus ,but Kevin on the other hand is not so fond of his school because of how social he is. At his school there are no high school sport games , or dances. So you may be wondering ” hmm what kind of high school doesn’t have social activities for students to express themselves , no high school experience .” Kevin makes the best of it by creating those memories through the new people that he meets on the GSU Clarkston Campus. Even though they are still restricted from doing most things that college students can do like joining most clubs and transferring to a different campus, its very strict policy.

     “Why not go to a public high school where you can experience the normal high school experience?” Kevin wanted to graduate the fastest way possible and he knew that the public high school near him wouldn’t benefit him socially and academically he wouldn’t change his decision on applying to DECA and getting accepted into this  program. This allowed Kevin to become more social to get connections that can help him in the future.

       Kevin is unsure about what he wants to major in when he actually does start college, but has a sufficient plan by the time he graduates from high school. This plan is to continue to attend Gsu Clarkston campus but is still deciding if he wants to transition to a different campus like Newton, or Alpharetta. After his freshman year in community college by his sophomore year he wants to attend a university. He does want to be an influencer that tries new things like foods, and places to hang out with your friends. Because outside of school Kevin hangs out everyday with his friends if he’s not working, So he has the platform all he wants to do is take off to live the luxury life.

      Kevin enjoys being a high school student in college because of how lenient his schedule is for him to still have a job , be social with his friends and still have time to complete his assignments in school. Because unlike high school the deadlines are strictly enforced and that’s one thing that does scare him. Kevin likes to keep a clear mind, be stress free, and organized when it comes to being his academic self.

 

Works Cited

       Bibiano Valdivia , Kevin interview conducted by Yvette Chambliss January 31st, 2022

    Bibiano Valdivia, Kevin Peer review “ Academic self” February 1st, 2022