SAN FRANCISCO ― As an undergraduate in the 1960s, Dr. Roland B. Smith Jr. was an unabashed activist fighting to secure more resources for what was then Bowie State College, where he majored in sociology and anthropology. He didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line, either.
Smith and more than 200 of his peers marched into the Maryland State House in Annapolis on April 4, 1968, seeking additional funding for the historically Black Bowie State to update its curriculum and renovate aging dorms and facilities that were inferior to those at traditionally White institutions. Gov. Spiro Agnew refused to meet with students and ordered them jailed.
So nowadays, whenever students at Rice University initiate sit-ins, rallies and die-ins calling for change, Smith, the associate provost, is often there lending support and counsel.
“Those things stick with you,” Smith said of his coming-of-age activism, which included a stint as Bowie State’s student body president. “I’ve got an incredible sense of déjà vu. College administrators who have experience as outsiders should have empathy for this generation of young people.”
Smith’s comments came last week during the annual National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE). During interviews with Diverse, numerous attendees agreed that it’s imperative for faculty and staff of color to find ways to stand in solidarity with today’s underrepresented and disadvantaged students, who are navigating college at a time of ongoing racial tensions, escalating tuition and national political rhetoric that is often anti-minority, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim.
Smith, for instance, recalled his pride in 2014 when students at Rice joined faculty and alumni for a campuswide town hall discussion on race relations in the aftermath of an unarmed Black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, being fatally shot by a White policeman. The Rice forum encouraged speakers, including students, to explore racial discrimination and the justice system. The wide-ranging topics were the experiences of people of color being watched in stores because employees expected they would steal merchandise to White people jaywalking within view of police officers but not worrying about being stopped.
Rhosetta Rhodes, Whitworth University’s vice president of student life, echoed Smith’s sentiments. “We shouldn’t compartmentalize. We need to be seen with students making change.”
