Dr. Zachery Williams is on a mission to make African-American Studies more accessible to the masses.
Williams, an associate professor of history at the University of Akron and a rising star in the academy, is in the final stages of launching what some are affectionately calling “college in the hood.”
The CommUniversity, an independent effort conceived by Williams, will begin in February, offering free classes centered on an African-American Studies curriculum. It will have a specific focus of tackling some of the most pressing problems, like the achievement gap and mass incarceration, facing African-American neighborhoods throughout the Cleveland and Akron areas.
“These issues in the African-American community have never been more pressing than at this point,” says Williams, who has taught at the University of Akron for the past eight years. “We have to get out of the ivory tower and we have to be open and creative to how we approach things.”
Though Williams has recruited faculty members from local colleges and universities to volunteer to teach in the program, the program is not sponsored by any one academic institution. It does have the backing of numerous community-based organizations and churches who have volunteered their facilities to host the classes.
In the wake of drastic cutbacks in the Cleveland and Akron areas, community leaders say that a program like the one Williams has envisioned is critical to getting locals to even consider the possibility of someday enrolling in a two- or four-year college.
