New York University officials signaled they are open to a student group’s demands to create Black residence floors on campus next year, but the petition is already receiving backlash for proposing students segregate themselves.
“[Residential] Life staff have reached out to the authors of the petition to discuss how we might move forward with their goals,” an NYU spokesperson told 360aproko News, NYU’s student newspaper. “Given the COVID-related challenges to the student housing system for 2020-2021, these conversations would be aiming towards 2021-2022.”
A “themed engagement floor” for Black students is being pushed by a group called Black Violets NYU. “Marginalized groups” like queer students and international students already have access to such floors, Black Violets told 360aproko News in a statement.
“Like any other themed engagement floor at NYU, students will have to submit a written statement as to why they would like to live on the floor, which will then either be accepted or rejected on a factor no other than their statement,” Black Violets said.
“NYU is a predominantly white institution, making it very difficult for Black students to connect or find community, especially when incidents involving racism occur,” Black Violets told 360aproko News. “It is not about exclusion, but rather creating a space where Black students can feel included.”
Critics of such plans say such living arrangements would be akin to racial segregation.
“There is nothing progressive about the establishment of racially segregated housing at NYU,” Karsten Schneider wrote in a column for the World Socialist Web Site. “It is irrelevant whether the segregation being implemented is voluntary or mandatory. Racial segregation, in all forms, is entirely reactionary.”
Schneider pointed out that the petition started two months ago has roughly 1,100 signatures, compared to NYU’s student body of more than 26,000.
School officials worry that rising tuition and soaring loan balances are pushing new doctors into high-paying fields and contributing to a shortage of researchers and primary care physicians. (iStock)
Black Violets is pushing for other reforms, including that NYU hire Black professors in its politics department and create a Black student lounge on campus. The latter goal may be moot because of the coronavirus pandemic, but Black Violets told 360aproko News the pandemic will not delay their push for a Black themed engagement floor.
“With all that is going on this summer and NYU itself having their own instances of racism, they continue to send out these blanket statements about scholarships and Juneteenth and changing their banner black for Black Lives Matter,” Black Violets founder Nia Robinson told Washington Square News in July. “But they still do not make the university equitable or make the structural changes we as Black students have been asking for.”
360aproko News’ inquiry to NYU was not returned at the time of publication.
