Students Take a Stand at HBCUs Across the Country

After it was announced earlier this month that US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos would be the keynote speaker at a Historically Black College and University in Florida, students at Bethune-Cookman University began speaking out.

The student body, comprised of current students, members of the graduating class, and alumni, used Change.org to create a platform for their opposition of their university’s decision. After being left out of the conversation regarding who would speak at graduation, they turned to Change.org for tools that would help elevate their voices not only to Bethune-Cookman University’s administration, but also to the national press.

While BCU alumnus Dominik Whitehead’s petition didn’t achieve victory, nearly 9,000 signatures on his petition drew media attention which culminated in widespread coverage of the commencement ceremony where some graduating seniors turned their backs on DeVos while she spoke.

The story continues to circulate in the media and critics of the university’s decision to invite the Secretary to speak wonder who was behind what looks increasingly like a publicity stunt — for the institution, and for the Secretary. That’s why now, Terrance Cribbs Lorrant is calling on Bethune-Cookman University President Edison O. Jackson to resign from his role immediately. The petition cites a lack of transparency in the president’s decision making process related to choosing DeVos to speak at commencement and the lack of trust he’s instilled in the school’s student body as a result.

But Dominik’s petition may have started a movement. Rebecca Trevino at Texas State University, a Historically Black College and University in Houston, called upon her own school’s president to prevent Senator John Cornyn from speaking at her graduation. With a national conversation already circulating around controversial keynote speakers at HBCUs, the petition saw victory in only one week.

This commencement season graduating students across the nation are taking to Change.org to demand transparency and neutrality from university administrations, sending a strong message that power lies in the hands of those receiving their diplomas, not only in the hands of those who award them.