For background:
Students furious over diversity official’s ousting
Protest march planned for today at noon
By Adele Hampton for the Diaomondback School Newspaper
Published: Thursday, November 5, 2009
The Nyumburu Cultural Center’s multipurpose room pulsed with anger last night as hundreds of students and faculty members vented their frustrations about the removal of Assistant Provost of Equity and Diversity Cordell Black from his longtime position.
“If someone has given to this university their blood, sweat and tears as he has, they should be able to walk out the door on their own terms and not because of back-door dealings that some folks did in terms of plotting and removing him from his position,” Student Involvement and Public Relations Director for the Nyumburu Cultural Center Solomon Comissiong said. “We need to mobilize and organize around one single thing and that is reinstating Dr. Black ... by any means necessary.”
Last Thursday, Black was called into a meeting with Provost Nariman Farvardin, where he was informed that as a result of budget cuts he would be replaced at the end of this fiscal year — June 30, 2010. The Office of the Associate Provost for Equity and Diversity, which Black oversees, houses the Nyumburu Cultural Center, the Office of LBGT Equity and the Office of Multi-ethnic Student Education. Farvardin said these departments will not be cut or altered in any way.
“I have three units that report to me and [Farvardin] says, ‘Nyumburu, I can’t touch that because that’s student fees and not state money, and LGBT Office of Equity, that’s much too political for me to touch, and OMSE because that’s crucial to our drive to [increase] the retainment of black and Latino males,’” Black said of his conversation with the provost last week.
But for many, these concessions are not enough. The announcement, coming a week after a diversity town hall where officials asserted their commitment to diversity, came as a shock.
Student activists are planning a march from Nyumburu to the Main Administration Building at noon today to show their contempt with the administration for its decision and to push for Black’s reinstatement.
“I honestly think the university is going on a drastic, drastic decline,” senior communication major Justin Dailey said. “I definitely think this needs to be addressed beyond College Park because this is an issue that a lot of people are invested in.”
Farvardin, who did not attend last night’s rally, said Black would be replaced by a part-time faculty member who will oversee the various diversity departments, while Black maintains a teaching role at the university. The provost said the position will be reinstated as a full-time job when the university’s budget stabilizes.
Though Black will no long serve in an administrative position — a job he has held for 18 years — he is a tenured faculty member, and therefore cannot be fired. Farvardin said Black has the option to remain a professor of 17th century French literature, if he so chooses.
Despite accusations from students who claimed the administration was using a tightening budget as an excuse to cut from diversity programs, the provost insisted the decision to remove Black’s position was strictly budgetary.
“We have to deal with our $40 million budget drop,” Farvadin said. “Unfortunately, I’ve had a lot of decisions like that to make. It’s very painful. ...But when you’re in these positions you have to make difficult decisions.”
Others, including Black, said the move was personal.
“It’s fundamentally disingenuous because it appears that his aim was to move me out of the office and to bring somebody else in because at no time did he say, ‘I’d like to bring you back in when things improve,’” Black said. “I would’ve appreciated honesty and not the duplicity of the whole situation.”
Last night, more than 300 people packed the cultural center, filling the multipurpose room to capacity and flooding the adjacent lobby. After two hours, during which attendees drafted a document many called “our diversity plan,” they left, ready to fight.
No matter the outcome of today’s protest, Black said he’s not sure if he has a reason to stay.
“I’m not one to bite my tongue and if I think something’s wrong I will say so as forcefully and as coherently as I can, irrespective of who’s in the room,” Black said. “And so, that’s what I’ve done for 18 years and I have no regrets.”
My response to the firing as a University of Maryland 2008 alumnus and friend of Dr. Black:
Dr. Cordell Black is not only one of the most important and effective administrators at the University of Maryland (in this 2008 alumnus's humble opinion), he is a great mentor, advocate, and friend. As a former student radical, if someone had told me five years ago that I would be taking time out of my busy schedule as a now-young professional radical to defend a top administrator at my university, I would have laughed it off. This is but one indicator of Dr. Black's exceptional attributes. And I'm far from the only alumnus who is speaking out.
I met Dr. Black in the midst of a campaign to challenge the university's investments in Sudan in 2005. At the time I did not expect much from Dr. Black or the administration as a whole. I could never have imagined then how much the two of us would have in common politically: We both believed strongly in social justice and dedicated much of our energy and resources to progressive causes. The only difference between us, I quickly learned, was rank and experience.
I saw Dr. Black several times after that. Progressive causes and events kept bringing us together. I set up appointments with his office in order to request funding for programs such as Alternative Spring Break and Tunnel of Oppression. I will never forget how his generous contribution in the spring of 2006 allowed a dozen students including myself to travel to New Orleans for post-Katrina reconstruction for free or at a reduced cost.
Dr. Black also served as a personal mentor for at least one passionate, dedicated (but young and confused) college student - yours truly. He was always encouraging and helpful, giving me second thoughts about my sophomoric structural analysis in the early days that was often limited to "students good, administrators evil." Soon enough, whenever my fellow student activists would condemn the entire administration, I would take exception.
Whether he's advocating, funding programs, introducing enlightening speakers at the Provost Conversations on Diversity (which I attended religiously), or just being his warm and pleasant self, Dr. Black has proven time and time again his genuine commitment to the University of Maryland community - black, red, brown, white, and yellow. I can't think of a better man for the position, and I can't think of a better position for the man. He has earned his keep and deserves to retire when he wants and how he wants.
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