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Part of Students continue to advocate for more black faculty, March 14, 2019

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Students continue to inulty2008has todecreased
31 in 2018. In UB
communications article re­
advocate for more
leased last week, UB President
Satish Tripathi admitted UB
SPE
CT
RUM
black faculty
has "more to do" in terms of

Black Student Union 3/14/19minority faculty recruitment and recogdiscusses support for
nized the potential of programs such as
investment in African and SUNY's PRODI-G initiative to add 1,000
African American Studies minority faculty to state campuses in. the

next decade
Nor said it's important to get people
THOMAS ZAFONTE,
in
the president's office and that "higher
ALEXANDRA MOYEN
ups" should hear their complaints in order
FEATURES DESK
to implement change.
Black Student Union members dis­
The meeting comes after a rally on
cussed systemic racism, representation in March 1 by the Pre-Law Chapter of the
faculty and UB's treatment of the African National Black Law Students Association.
and African American Studies program at The organization listed eight demands for
the university to improve black students'
its general body meeting Wednesday.
BSU members and students talked experiences at UB.
BSU vice president Daniel Edwards,
throughout the meeting about the cur­
rent state and future of the AAS program. who oversaw the open discussion, said
Roughly 40 club members and students at­ BSU "demands" UB restores the AAS
tended to voice concerns over the number program's Clemens Hall floor. He called
of black faculty and AAS classes offered on UB to restructure the UB Pathways, as
well, which he said doesn't always list AAS
in the UB curriculum.
The meeting started with a vote on a classes.
Edwards said a new UB Pathways crite­
number of topics. No one at the meeting
voted that UB has "properly invested" or ria would highlight and promote students
"cared" for its AAS program.
in AAS courses.
''When it came to the inception of the
Fatima Nor, a senior psychology major
and AAS minor, said she was concerned African Americans Studies program, BSU
with the "very low" number of black en­ played an integral part in it," Edwards said.
rollment at UB and the school's "failure" "It makes sense that we continue that con­
to reach out to its ·minority population.
nection between us and the [program] . ..
"They · are not hiring black faculty or Making sure it is intact, well funded and
teachers. It's getting to the point where prosperous is something we definitely
it comes down to student activism," Nor have to do."
Only one of the roughly 40 students at
said. ''We need to speak up for the things
that are important to us, so [BSU] coming the BSU meeting voted that they had an
together is the first step toward that."
academic advisor who suggested an Afri­
The number of black tenure-track fac> SEE ADVOCATE I PAGE 4

FROM PAGE 1

ADVOCATE
.. ,

can American Studies course. A number
of students said they were discouraged by
their advisers to take AAS classes, with one
student saying they were told the classes
"had no meaning."
"When I was [submitting applications]
to UB, the [university was] speaking about
diversity a lot, showing how diverse UB is," ·
said Velldreice Cadely, freshman chemical
engineering major.
"I get here now and I am trying to take
an AAS class and it's not the same at all.
The whole engineering department, I
don't feel they care about black students."
Cadley said her adviser didn't want her
to take any AAS courses because "it had
nothing to do with" her major. Cadley said
being around people who look like her
helps to make UB a more. comfortable en­
vironment.
faculty in any program.
BSU opened the floor to suggestions
Deborah Pierce-Tate, a black faculty
on how to act on representational issues. member in the Transnational Studies ·de­
Students discussed the need to hire black partment, spoke at the meeting and said

advisers told her not to advise students
The room' voted
to take an AAS course.
in unanimous favor on making an AAS
course a requirement of all undergraduates. One audience member saidif the
UB Pathways were meant to make you
''well- rounded," they would include AAS
courses.
Multiple attendees said a lack of blac,k
faculty does not
encourage success for
black students on campus.BSU reported
• that by Fall 20;!b~:.re will, ~mly/~~~~ :;

• facffity-~dt ·c
• rt~• Nor said. "The fact that Buffalo's popula­
tion is 40 percent black, it's hard to say that
it's not institutionalized racism."
BSU will hold a coffee talk on Friday in
UB has its own definition of diversity that Clemens 1004 at 5 p.m. on social media in
currently does not include hiring black fac­ the black community.
ulty.
Email: features@ubspectrum.com
Pierce-Tate said English department