Protests Unite Students at the AUC

Students crossed the Atlanta University Center (AUC) Consortium person spent the past 2 weeks protesting lodging conditions and a deficiency of transparency from their school’s administration.

The students made definite to impact each of the schools successful the AUC successful their organizing, including students from Morris Brown College and the Interdenominational Theological Center.

“We knew that determination was powerfulness successful numbers, that’s wherefore we came unneurotic arsenic a collective,” said Ariyana Griffin, a elder astatine Clark Atlanta University.

 The radical of pupil organizers called the Atlanta Student Movement primitively came unneurotic successful solidarity with the ongoing protests astatine Howard University successful Washington D.C.

According to Griffin the students past began to recognize the fig of issues they wanted addressed connected their ain campuses. The main issues that they decided needed to beryllium addressed were housing, dining, transportation, fiscal aid, Title IX, transparency and accountability from their institutions. 

Earlier this twelvemonth students from Clark Atlanta University (CAU) and Spelman College reached retired to the Atlanta Voice astir a deficiency of lodging and mediocre connection from their schools.

 In mid-October members of the Atlanta Student Movement began camping retired on the promenade astatine Clark University to gully attraction to mediocre lodging conditions.

Sophomore transportation pupil astatine CAU Brooklyn Alladice had to temporarily determination successful with a relative aft h2o began leaking from the walls successful their dorm’s bathroom.

 “At archetypal I thought it was conscionable a small drip and got my bucket,” Alladice said. “The walls started leaking h2o and past it turned into puddles and started leaking into my room.” 

Alladice said the h2o leaked into their country each implicit their vinyl postulation and made its mode to their closet wherever each of their shoes were. 

“It was astatine slightest an inch to 2 inches of h2o covering the level successful my closet and bathroom,” Alladice said. 

When attraction came to the adjacent and opened up the ceiling and backmost partition successful Alladice’s bath they recovered ample areas of mold.

“They realized that a tube had been leaking for immoderate clip and it was conscionable ne'er fixed, adjacent though they conscionable renovated Heritage Commons,” said Alladice.

 The CAU yet had Alladice moved into impermanent lodging aft she initially moved retired to enactment with a relative.

A’niyah Jackson a freshman astatine CAU had akin problems with h2o and drainage issues but said that a bulk of the issues with her dorm are not large but that the gathering has been neglected for a agelong time.

On Tuesday, CAU President George T. French signed a database of demands from the Atlanta Student Movement called the HBCU Student Quality of Life Agreement.

The statement addresses each of the movement’s large demands including an autarkic third-party inspection of each on-campus pupil lodging that is to beryllium completed by August 2022.

Student organizers person met with the presidents of Morehouse, CAU and Spelman successful the past week specifically to sermon the prime of beingness astatine the schools and sermon a way forward. 

Ariyana Griffin said 1 of the reasons the students person been capable to marque advancement is by staying successful solidarity with 1 another.

That means making definite each the antithetic perspectives of AUC students are being heard. For illustration harmless on-campus lodging is simply a large interest for the underclassmen, portion upperclassmen are disquieted astir proscription issues and repast program exemptions. 

Throughout October astatine HBCUs crossed the southbound from Howard to Tuskegee, students person protested owed to backing and enactment issues astatine their universities.

Different from the Atlanta Student Movement of the 1960s wherever students were focused connected changing the satellite extracurricular their campus, this radical of pupil organizers are pointing the digit astatine their ain schools and nationalist leaders to marque changes.

The AUC organizers called connected the Biden-Harris Administration, Congresswomen Lucy McBath and Nikema Williams and some of Georgia’s senators to sermon including a $45 cardinal concern successful HBCUs successful the Build Back Better Act.