Howard University students have been occupying a student center on campus for over two weeks, demanding university action regarding unsafe on-campus living conditions.

Since Oct. 12, students have been occupying the inside and outside of a student center on campus, calling on the university to address safety concerns after reports of poor ventilation, mold, leaking pipes, pests and mushrooms growing from ceilings in university residence halls. Student activists are calling for an in-person town hall with Howard President Wayne A. I. Frederick and other university administrators before the end of October, as well as legal and disciplinary immunity for all participants of the occupation. 

On Oct. 13, administrators asked students to stop occupying the Armour J. Blackburn University Center, warning they may face disciplinary consequences, including expulsion, according to an email sent to Howard students by Interim Student Affairs Vice President Cynthia Evers. In an Oct. 26 email to Howard students, Frederick again demanded the occupation come to an end. However, these threats have not deterred activists, who as of Oct. 28 continue to occupy the building. 

All students deserve to protest against housing injustice without facing repercussions, according to a group titled the Blackburn Takeover Family.

“We are not criminals. We are students who have been let down. We are the victims in this story,” the Blackburn Takeover Family wrote in a letter to the editor published by The Hilltop, Howard University’s student-operated newspaper. 

Howard students involved in the Live Movement, a coalition of current and former students fighting for the advancement of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Black students, organized the Blackburn protest. Since the start of the takeover, the organization has used social media to raise money for donations to buy supplies.

Clodomir Jean-Louis, a Howard University School of Law student and member of the Blackburn Takeover Advisory Council, said the safety concerns justify student outrage.

“I would challenge that the university has failed their job as steward of these particular students that are protesting and potentially all students on campus,” Jean-Louis said in a phone interview with The Hoya.

Howard University did not respond to The Hoya’s request for comment. 

Now, Georgetown University students are standing in solidarity with Howard activists by delivering supplies to those occupying Blackburn. The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) and the Georgetown Black Student Alliance (BSA) traveled to Howard on Oct. 14 to distribute materials like hygiene products, clothing, pillows and prepackaged food, according to GUSA President and BSA President Nile Blass (COL ’22). 

“People were speaking about their personal experiences and how the indifference and oftentimes misaction of the Howard University administration has harmed them,” Blass said in a phone interview with The Hoya.

Blass said uplifting the voices of Howard students and the Live Movement is essential.

“We don’t actually need to speak for the Howard University students — they’ve organized, they’ve made it very clear what is unacceptable of the situation, and specific ways in which they seek restitution,” Blass said. “So amplifying the voices of Black and Brown students at Howard has been a big part.” 

In addition to disciplinary threats by university officials, police officers in the Howard Department of Public Safety have also used force against those occupying the building; an Oct. 23 Instagram live video shows a Howard police officer pushing students gathered in front of the Blackburn building, as well as threatening to use their baton.

Activists have also demanded that student, graduate and faculty voting power be reinstated to the Howard board of trustees. In June, the university announced it would phase out student, graduate and faculty influence in board decisions after it completed a review, consulting an outside firm and interviewing over 40 campus community members. 

Jean-Louis said the removal of student, graduate and faculty voting power from the board of trustees sends the message that Howard does not trust them. 

“When you remove student representation from the governing body of the university, when you remove alumni and faculty representation, they’re essentially saying we don’t want to be transparent anymore,” Jean-Louis said. 

According to Aaron Booe, sophomore at Howard and the founder and chairperson of the Claudia Jones Club, a student-run club that aims to advance political education grounded in the struggles of oppressed people with a vision of liberation, the board of trustees limits the university’s response to student demands. 

“Universities are private institutions, so naturally they’re going to be beholden to the board of trustees who run their universities,” Booe said in an interview with The Hoya. 

The issues that students occupying Blackburn are fighting against are part of a long history of administrative failings, according to Jean-Louis. 

“This university has a lot of good things about it, a lot, and I would say they’re mostly because of the students and the faculty,” Jean-Louis said. “When it comes to the administration, and the university processes, the operation, there are some core issues there that have never been thoroughly resolved.”