Students at Rice University in Texas are pushing the school to fund a “non-residential Black house” on campus, as well as remove a statue of the school’s founder.
The call for a “Black House” on campus was lodged in a social media post on the Facebook page of Rice’s official Graduate Student Association, according to Fox News.
“Here are what black undergraduate students have demanded from Rice University [sic] administration,” Rice graduate research assistant Dani Perdue posted. “I hope they are listening! #NoMoreLipService #blacklivesmatter.”
The post also asked for the “removal” of a statue of Rice University’s founder, William Marsh Rice, the hiring of more black professors, an increase in the number of black students accepted to the school, and rules against “hate speech.”
An Instagram account belonging to the Rice Black Student Association published a list of demands, and a document has also circulated demanding that “if a Black new student requests to have a Black roommate during orientation week, that request be honored,” among other requests.
Students are also asking for “better lighting for ID photos,” claiming that many black students have been frustrated with their student IDs and that they “deserve to be photographed and represented properly without having to make modifications and adjustments.”
When some students expressed disagreement with the demand for black-only housing, the president of the GSA, Alison Farrish, allegedly deleted some of their posts.
The push for reforms at Rice University comes as schools across the country are having similar conversations following the death of George Floyd on May 25.
A professor at UCLA was investigated and required police protection after refusing to allow black students to skip their final exams because of Floyd’s death. A top economist at the University of Chicago faced calls for his firing over criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement.
