*The University of Connecticut’s efforts to help black males graduate via the the construction of a living space solely built for the them is generating concern and negative feedback from some students.
The living community, known as ScHOLA2RS House, will exist in a more than 200,000-square-foot dorm set to open in 2016, The Blaze reports, citing coverage from WTIC-TV. Funds specifically for the living-learning community were provided through a grant that was given to the university, David Ouimette, executive director of first year programs and learning communities, confessed to the Daily Campus.
UConn’s website goes into more detail about the community as it labeled the ScHOLA2RS House “a scholastic initiative to groom, nurture, and train the next generation of leaders to address grand challenges in society through the promotion of academic success in undergraduate programs at the University of Connecticut and in competitive graduate programs.”
With black males graduating at a lower rate than other UConn students, assistant professor of educational psychology Dr. Erik Hines mentioned that the school will implement the ScHOLA2RS House as a “forward-thinking” solution.
“It is a space for African American men to … number 1, come together and validate their experiences that they may have on campus. Number 2, it’s also a space where they can have conversation and also talk with individuals who come from the same background who share the same experience,” Hines, a future advisor to students in the dorm, told WTIC.
Although the ScHOLA2RS House looks to be a step in the right direction, the notion of a living area for black male students only is being met with mixed reaction among some students.
“I was not pleased, my immediate thought was ‘What?’” Haddiyyah Ali, a fourth-semester Africana studies and political science major expressed to the Daily Campus. “I know there had to be a lot of research that went into it…but just for me coming from a student perspective, my initial thought was what about black women and girls – what about us?”
“Just this idea that 43 black men get retention programming and everyone else is left in limbo,” Ali continued. “I will always contest to the fact that black men on the campus aren’t given enough resources, I will in no way dispel that fact, but my questioning isn’t if they need, but is if they need it in this way.”
Weighing in on the criticisms surrounding the ScHOLA2RS House, Isaac Bloodworth, acknowledged that there will be those who will not take kindly to the new area and its availability for only black male students.
“The white portion of the University of Connecticut is probably not ready for it,” the puppetry major said. “You have people who are going to go against it because they are just racist and they see this as a form of segregation or that we’re getting better things than they are.”
While he’s supportive of the ScHOLA2RS House, Bloodworth went on to say that he is fearful the living space could lead to a racial divide on campus.
So what say you? Is UConn making the right move with the ScHOLA2RS House or is the school only inviting a lot of racial drama with making it a black male only living community?
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