Campus Backlash After Leaders of Black Colleges Meet With Trump

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/04/us/backlash-black-colleges-trump.html

Version 0 of 1.

WASHINGTON — It was a scalding message, painted on a university campus sidewalk this week: “Welcome to the Trump plantation. Overseer: Wayne A. I. Frederick.”

What made the message more jarring still was that Dr. Frederick is the black president of one of the country’s most respected historically black institutions, Howard University, founded here 150 years ago as a bulwark of social justice. Other graffiti on campus buildings said, “Wayne Frederick doesn’t care about black people,” and “Make Howard black again.”

And on Thursday, students disrupted a university convocation to protest what they saw as Howard University’s catering to the Trump administration. One student confronted Dr. Frederick, shouting: “Someone might have convinced you that money is more important than people. But we are asking you, in this moment, to choose us, to take a stand for us, and to do right by us.”

The student backlash came after Dr. Frederick and more than 60 other leaders of historically black colleges and universities gathered for a meeting on Monday with top officials of the Trump administration, including the new education secretary, Betsy DeVos. As the meeting was getting underway, participants said, it was interrupted to invite them to an impromptu visit with President Trump in the Oval Office.

A photograph of the black leaders smiling and chatting with Mr. Trump around his desk was widely circulated and instantly became a flash point for students who believe the administration has been insensitive to the needs of black Americans.

“Is it a photo op, is it an opportunity for Trump to put himself next to black people and smile?” Llewellyn Robinson, a Howard sophomore, said, after the graffiti had been wiped clean. “Is that the situation we’re dealing with? Or is it truly a seat at the table?”

Howard protesters said they had heard echoes of support — in the form of tweets, student organizations reaching out and the exchange of information on group messaging apps — from students at other prominent black institutions like Spelman, Morehouse, Hampton and North Carolina A&T. An aide to one college president said that concerns about how to deal with the protesters had been a topic of intense phone conversations among the leaders.

Many of the black leaders who met with Mr. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and other members of the administration said that they had no apologies for what they called institution building, a chance to make a personal connection with Mr. Trump in the hope that his administration would invest in the future of their colleges and universities.

“I was not there for any foolishness,” said David Wilson, the president of Morgan State in Baltimore, who said he consulted with student leaders, faculty, alumni and regents before agreeing to the meeting. “I was not there for a photo op with the president. I was not there to make any statement about legitimizing him or not. I was there to make sure that the genre of institutions that has been so critical to building the middle class in this country and that will be critical to maintaining the middle class going forward receive the appropriate amount of federal aid.”

But the students saw the meetings as political cover for Mr. Trump, and some awkward details of his administration’s encounter with the black academic leaders only reinforced their skepticism.

Many saw it as disrespectful when Kellyanne Conway, senior adviser to Mr. Trump, was photographed sitting with her feet tucked under her on a couch in the Oval Office, fiddling with her phone, as Mr. Trump and the black leaders stood in the background.

Ms. DeVos was criticized for saying, in a statement in honor of the meetings, that “H.B.C.U.s are real pioneers when it comes to school choice,” referring to historically black colleges and universities. Some were offended by the implication that black institutions were created as a free-market choice, rather than by necessity because of segregation.

At Thursday’s convocation at Howard, students raised fists and held signs saying, “Trump is Not Welcome @ Howard,” and “Don’t Take Trump Hu$h Money,” before being escorted from the auditorium by security, the students said. As they paraded out, they chanted, “We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

Students said that Dr. Frederick’s visit to the White House had been a topic of conversation in classes all week. Residents of one dorm held a town hall-style meeting on Wednesday night to discuss it.

The protest is a striking departure from the student demonstrations against racial injustice that have roiled campuses for two years because it was focused on White House politics.

The fact that it occurred at Howard, partly under the social media banner #HUResist, may have to do with the university’s location in the nation’s capital, as well as the fact that on Feb. 9, Ms. DeVos made her first official school visit as education secretary to Howard, where she met privately with Dr. Frederick in his office. Howard students also tweeted their disapproval of that visit. The next day, she went to Jefferson Academy, a public school in Washington, where she was met by protesters.

“I think maybe he thinks if he does these photo ops, then Howard will get more money,” Blake Newby, a Howard senior, said of Dr. Frederick on Thursday. “But it’s President Trump!”

Dr. Frederick declined to comment on Thursday. But late Thursday, after the convocation was disrupted, he released a two-page letter to the “Howard University Community” defending his contact with the Trump administration and his meeting on campus with Ms. DeVos. “I can assure you these engagements will occur without compromising our principles,” the letter said.

Many historically black colleges and universities, including Howard, have suffered financial strain in recent years because of changes in federal support and declining interest among black college-bound students. About 300,000 students, not all black, attend historically black colleges and universities, but their share of the black college population dropped to 8 percent in 2014 from 18 percent in 1976, according to federal statistics.

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Howard’s rating below investment grade in June 2015, largely because of problems supporting its hospital, which is a safety net for poor patients. But Moody’s said the lower rating also reflected competition for price-sensitive students in a narrow niche.

Marybeth Gasman, a historian of education at the University of Pennsylvania, said she thought the meeting did more for Mr. Trump than for the college presidents. “I think this was an opportunity for Donald Trump to say, ‘Look, I had this event with African-American leaders,’ and, ‘Get off my back.’”

“I hate that people feel — that the students feel — a sense of betrayal,” said Walter Kimbrough, the president of Dillard University in New Orleans. “It was a great opportunity to help the new secretary. It was really like an H.B.C.U. 101,” he said.

Johnny C. Taylor Jr., president and chief executive of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, said his group — which represents 47 publicly supported black colleges and universities — had asked for a meeting with Mr. Trump, and was elated when it was granted. The group had asked for a meeting with President Barack Obama every year for eight years and had never heard back, he said.

“We don’t have a problem getting to the secretary,” Mr. Taylor said. “But Mr. Trump or any president has to first propose their budget to Congress, so you need to get to the president to impact his budget if you hope to get your financial support from Congress.”

He said the meetings had already borne fruit because Mr. Trump had signed an order moving a longstanding initiative supporting historically black colleges and universities from the education department into the White House, where some black leaders thought it would carry more weight.

Some Howard students were more supportive. Nia McGaugh, a sophomore, said she felt the urgency of federal funding, noting that Howard needed more student mental health services.

“President Trump should be aware of what’s going on inside our doors, and we shouldn’t be so hung up on upholding our image when we need help,” she said.

Mr. Taylor said he had actually expected a smaller delegation of presidents to be allowed into the Oval Office, but Mr. Trump had invited them all in.

“It was a sight to see,” he said. “It’s fascinating to me that they don’t see the value and to reduce it to a photo opportunity. I think it’s quite condescending to suggest that really smart people with the best Ph.D.s in the country flew all the way there for a photo op. Come on, guys. Don’t reduce us to that.”