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Alumnus Agyei Tyehimba estimated that over a thousand Syracuse University alumni are “very concerned” with the state of the university’s African American Studies department, based on interactions and contact he’s had with alumni groups. Amid its uncertain future, several alumni, faculty and students have formed an affinity group to advocate for the department.

The department currently has no chair and, with the spring semester coming to a close, no assurances that it will be able to function normally next fall semester, according to AAS faculty.

“Summer times are famous for these administrations to do a lot of odd things to your departments and programs,” said Herbert Ruffin, associate professor of AAS. “Especially if you don’t have a well-trusted person who is watching your institution.”

University administration has “an obligation” to restore the department’s leadership by the end of the 2023-2024 academic year so that AAS faculty can plan for the 2024-2025 academic year, said Charles Wynder, who graduated from SU in 1986.

Tyehimba, who graduated from SU in 1991, said alumni have been “very heavily” calling university administration, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of Multicultural Advancement, stating their discomfort with donations “to an institution that is disrespecting the African American Studies department,” even if the money goes towards Black students’ scholarships.

“There’s other things that are going to go on if this is not handled appropriately, that will get more intense as time goes on,” Tyehimba said.

Around 30 Black alumni, faculty and students met at Sims Hall on April 11, where they formed the affinity group.

Michelle Walker-Davis, who holds three degrees from SU and first graduated in 1982, had come to SU to celebrate her son’s fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, and was brought along to the AAS meeting by her son. At the meeting, she suggested creating an affinity group.

“God put me (at the meeting) for a reason,” she said.

At the meeting, S. N. Sangmpam, who has been an AAS professor for about 35 years, said the reason he came to teach at SU was because of students — particularly Tyehimba.

During his time as an SU undergraduate, Tyehimba was a “controversial” activist on campus and led a year-long campaign with the Student African American Society to “defend the (AAS) department,” he said. At the time, Sangmpam was working at the University of Rochester and had a job offer in California. After seeing students protesting on TV he decided “on the spot” to come to SU.

The AAS department came to fruition through student protest and was strengthened by student protest, Sangmpam said. Professors emphasized that the issue with the instability of the department is not about keeping their jobs, but about students’ ability to access academia about Blackness.

In the late 1980s, Tyehimba said the AAS department was “looking terrible” — the roof was caved in, books were destroyed and water was everywhere. AAS also had no librarian for its Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, no chair and not enough professors to fulfill the curriculum — which is still true today, he said.

Tyehimba, who was the president of SAAS at the time, said the movement began with the “so-called traditional, correct ways to protest,” but when that didn’t work, the protests eventually grew more intense, he said.

“We simply said ‘Okay, you will not sleep until these things are done.’ We took all of the issues at the time, there were 13 … we put them on these huge posters,” Tyehimba said.

The group had thousands of the posters made and put them in every building and hallway — even bathroom stalls — and along the Shaw Quadrangle so people could see “what (they) were complaining about,” he said.

Hundreds of Black students disrupted the university’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Center for Science and Technology, now part of SU’s Life Sciences Complex. Ceremony attendees included then-chancellor Melvin Eggers, the lieutenant governor and “all types of big people that had donated money,” Tyehimba said. The event was moved to Goldstein Auditorium, but protesters followed.

“At least 500 of us, we bum-rush the Goldstein Auditorium. There’s people having a luncheon there and the chancellor’s on the stage and he’s talking. I took the mic from him and said, ‘What are you going to do about the African American Studies department?’ I put the mic back in his face,” Tyehimba said. “We told them, ‘Thank you for coming. We are commandeering this meeting … we’re discussing what the chancellor is going to do about our department.’”

This “very embarrassing moment” ultimately pushed the administration to negotiate with those who were advocating for AAS, Tyehimba said. The group had 13 demands — which came from students, faculty and the community, he said — and requested that the administration sign off on every single one.

In 1989, the 13 demands that the administration initially called “unreasonable” became the 13-Point Document. It created the Pan African Studies master’s program, brought scholars like Angela Davis to campus and authorized a full-time librarian for the MLK Library. The document’s plaque can be found in the AAS department on the second floor of Sims Hall.

Tyehimba said that, as someone who “fought directly to protect” the department, the current state of AAS is “very alarming.”

“It is a department like this one that makes it possible for Syracuse University to do something to integrate the African world in its curriculum,” Sangmpam said. “There is no other department on this campus that can do that.”

Not just Black and African students, but students of “all descents,” deserve to learn about the role of African Americans in the United States, Sangmpam said. If young people are not educated about Black history, then they are prone to accept and recycle racist narratives and ideologies, he said.

“Syracuse University is trying to dismantle that scholarship. Then, the university will not be showing to everyone what the place of the African world in American civilization is. That is not acceptable,” Sangmpam said.

Ruffin said during the meeting that he felt he was asking for “too much” from the university regarding his plans for the department. Danielle T. Smith, AAS professor, responded by saying, “It’s never too much,” and that she considers the university’s treatment of the department “discriminatory.” She described experiencing physical symptoms from stress due to the state of the department.

“Discrimination is harmful. It hurts,” she said.

Walker-Davis said there are six SU alumni in her family. Her family is proud of their legacy at SU, she said, and there are other families like hers who are dissatisfied with the university’s handling of the AAS department.

The affinity group will hold its first meeting, which will be open to the public, over Zoom on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Those who wish to attend can register in advance online.

“We’re not going down without a fight,” Walker-Davis said. “We will fight until hell freezes over and then we will fight on the ice.”

CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this article stated that Tyehimba said 1,500 alumni had expressed concern over the state of the AAS department. This number was an estimation. The article has been updated accordingly.

Published on April 28, 2024 at 9:40 pm

Contact Ahna: arflemin@syr.edu