Towson U Leader Signs Off on Black Students' 12 Demands

The interim president of Towson University has committed to meet, or attempt to meet, 12 demands on behalf of the university’s black students.

Interim President Timothy Chandler pledged to improve campus race relations by increasing the number of black tenured faculty by at least 10 percent by 2018; advocating that a course on American race relations become part of the university’s curriculum; and committing to several other measures students said would ensure equality, according to the list of demands published by Towson student newspaper The Towerlight.

Students wrote that their demands came in response to the daily “oppressive occurrences that we experience...as black students of this institution,” such as “egg shells and racial slurs being thrown out of windows,” “lack of representation in black faculty” and “sexual and racial epithets from classroom professors.”

On the Towson campus in 2012, one student proposed a White Student Union and brought a speaker in to preach about racial separateness. A rally celebrating the diversity on campus ensued in 2013, attended by then-president Maravene Loeschke, who died from cancer in June.

Currently, Chandler is the interim president of the university, and a search is underway for a permanent leader.

The agreement Chandler signed Thursday states that he will resign if he fails to honor his promise to attempt to fulfill the demands of the university’s black student population.

“I greatly admire your courage, and I greatly admire the fact that you are here,” Chandler told the dozens of students who held a sit-in at his office before negotiating the terms of the agreement, according to WJZ.

The attention paid to the issue of race relations on campus made an impact.

Student Breya Johnson told The Towerlight she saw the demonstration as a “victory.” While there is much work ahead, she said: “...it’s nice to see that we have staff on our side...”

The movement at Towson was one of several #StudentBlackOut protests facilitated by newly formed advocacy organization Black Liberation Collective, which strives to end racial injustice on college campuses.

Students at more than 30 colleges and universities provided lists of demands they saw as necessary for racial equality Wednesday as part of the collective “Day of Action” at institutions of higher education.

At Princeton University, leaders vowed Wednesday to stop using the term “master” to describe heads of colleges, effective immediately. The Guardian noted officials did so “without mentioning race.”