Northwestern University students and alumni said they will continue to battle proposed changes in the building that houses the Department of African-American Student Affairs after administrators postponed the plans Sunday.
Known colloquially as the “Black House,” the Victorian-style house on Sheridan Road has been the center of Black campus life since 1972, four years after a group of 110 Black students staged a 38-hour takeover of the bursar’s office.
Members of the campus and alumni community were blindsided when an email blast sent Friday outlined plans to relocate administrative offices to the Black House and the Multicultural Center. Of particular interest is the Black House, as that space has long been designated for Black students on campus as part of an agreement between Black students and administrators to end the 1968 takeover.
“I actually believe that it wasn’t their [administrators’] intent to either be disrespectful or be dismissive of the Black experience,” said Dr. Jeffrey Sterling, president of the Northwestern University Black Alumni Association. “That said, that doesn’t give you a free pass if a mistake was made. Whether by intent or execution, when mistakes are made, they have to be called out and addressed.”
University administrators refused to comment for this article, instead sending a copy of the statement by Patricia Telles-Irvin, vice president for student affairs. In the statement, Telles-Irvin wrote that the move had been postponed and that the university will hold four discussions during the fall quarter to garner feedback from interested students and alumni. The university will also form a Black House Facilities Review Committee to come up with recommendations based on the four meetings.
That this plan was put into place during the summer and without sufficient student and alumni input made it even harder to swallow. Classes don’t begin until Sept. 23.
“It feels like they wanted as little resistance as possible,” said Morgan Campbell, a 1999 journalism graduate who played for two years on Northwestern’s football team. “If it was this urgent, they wouldn’t have been able to postpone it; you could have always done it in the fall. “
