Howard University is in the midst of “an emerging, heated, family squabble.”
That’s according to former alumni trustee Rock Newman, who, in an open letter to Howard on Facebook, asked that the Board of Trustees reverse its unanimous decision made in mid-June to remove all affiliate trustee roles for faculty, students and alumni.
The decision was the result of an “extensive review” of the Board’s governance last year, explained Dr. Laurence C. Morse, chairman of the HU Board of Trustees, in an announcement. Working with an external firm that specializes in higher education governance, he said the review team interviewed more than 40 university stakeholders, such as students, alumni, faculty and former trustees.
“There was overwhelming consensus that our current process of governance and engagement across the university, from the Board through various stakeholder groups, is not working,” wrote Morse, who didn’t elaborate on what “is not working” but ensured that “stakeholder engagement” would remain a priority, beginning with a virtual town hall that was held on June 21.
Still, alumni and students were not pleased.
“The most inexplicable part of shutting student, faculty, & alumni voices out of Howard’s Board of Trustees – is that the choice replicates the elitism & supremacy of the structures that necessitated Howard’s creation,” wrote Paul Lisbon, a student at Howard Law School.
“Faculty, alumni, and again, especially students, deserve to be able to chart the future of our institution in a manner that is collaborative and that centers us all, not just a handful of board members,” wrote HU’s Young Democratic Socialists of America Afro-Socialists in a petition that has received 350 signatures asking the Board to reverse its decision.
