#BlackburnTakeover Day 17, rainy and cold.
Are we okay with any institution, not to mention an HBCU, callously treating Black students protesting conditions (which the university is now hastily remedying)?
Statement from students’ counsel. A thread
Are we okay with any institution, not to mention an HBCU, callously treating Black students protesting conditions (which the university is now hastily remedying)?
Statement from students’ counsel. A thread
Posted by Donald M. Temple at about 2:30 a.m. on 10.29.21
It was Sunday afternoon when the students asked me to represent them pro bono. After all, the President asked them about counsel, as if they could afford one.
It was Sunday afternoon when the students asked me to represent them pro bono. After all, the President asked them about counsel, as if they could afford one.
In two student initiated meetings this past Monday and Wednesday, student leaders were prepared to engage in a good faith NEGOTIATION AND RESOLUTION of their concerns. These beautiful, brilliant, courageous, young women showed me something beyond social media’s episodic footage.
They long for a healthy space in which to flourish and feed their academic aspirations. They love Howard University. Twice this week they presented a modest four point set of demands and were prepared to negotiate them.
Twice this week, TWICE, the university stated that IT WOULD NOT NEGOTIATE with them NOR DISCUSS their demands until they left Blackburn. Its representatives EMPHATICALLY challenged their amnesty request.
The students replied that the University was at fault, not them, and that they were forced to protest after two months of University neglect. @VP @BerniceKing @RevDrBarber @angela_rye @TishJames @NickCannon
Subsequent to that second meeting, the University stated that it would consider amnesty only if the students left Blackburn by noon the next day and immediately stopped its media campaign. A third student request for negotiation has gone unanswered.
No meaningful negotiation has commenced to date notwithstanding the students’ offer of a framework for settlement that requests a meeting between students at large, the President and Board Chair; a clear path (housing plan) to public safety and health in their dorms; amnesty,
and return of student representation on the BOT. Even with Counsel, and very reasonable demands, the University has refused to conduct a basic demand by demand negotiation. These are the facts surrounding the immediate impasse.
Donald Temple, Esq. 202-258-3245.
Donald Temple, Esq. 202-258-3245.
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