Page 10 - Florida Sentinel 11-19-21

HBCU News
Howard University Students Reach An Agreement With Officials After A Month Of Protest
For more than a month, students at Howard Univer- sity in Washington, D. C., have been fighting for an- swers from the school ad- ministration as they protested poor housing con- ditions on campus.
But on Monday, an agree- ment with protesters at one of the nation's top histori- cally Black universities had been reached, the school an- nounced in a tweet.
The specific details of the negotiations between stu- dents and administration were not immediately avail- able. NPR reached out to Howard University; they did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The university's presi- dent, Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick, released a video message Monday addressing the end of campus protests and how the school will im- prove conditions for stu- dents.
"The health and well-
Howard University students gathered on campus to protest poor housing conditions and what they said was mistreatment by the university administration in Washington, D. C., on Oct. 25.
leader. "We came, we saw, we declared and we won."
Students had been sleep- ing in tents outside the Blackburn University Center since Oct. 12, protesting what they said were poor housing conditions and the lack of student representation on the Board of Trustees.
Since the start of the fall semester, students say they've raised concerns to campus administrators re- garding mold in the walls of their dorms, the lack of COVID-19 testing for stu- dents and the overall safety on campus, according to DCist/WAMU.
In his State of the Union address on Nov. 5, Freder- ick stated that mold was dis- covered in 41 out of 2,700 rooms on campus, with some of the damage being the re- sult of "accidental human error."
In 2018, students led a nine-day occupation of the campus administration building which resulted in an agreement between officials and students on several cam- pus changes.
The changes included a revision of the school's sex- ual assault policy, a review of policies allowing campus po- lice officers to carry weapons and the creation of a food bank on campus for stu- dents.
Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images
being of our students is the
most important part of my job as president," Freder- ick said. "As I have said be- fore, even one issue in one of our dormitories is too many, and we will continue to re- main vigilant in our pledge to maintain safe and high-end housing."
He also did not provide details but referenced the school's 2020 master plan to "grow and invest" in the uni-
versity, which he said focuses on improving campus expe- riences for its students, fac- ulty and staff.
During a news confer- ence Monday, student pro- testers began to celebrate the agreement.
"We spent 33 days saying that not only did our lives mattered, that our voices mattered and our concerns mattered," said one student
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