Education

Howard Student Protestors to Continue Week-long Protests Until Demands Are Met

#StudentPowerHU

Student activists at Howard University continued onto their seventh day of a sit-in at the university’s administration building on Wednesday in the wake of last week’s exposé on a financial aid scandal.

Following an anonymous whistleblower’s revelation of the university’s seemingly secretive proceedings in dealing with staff who were allegedly misappropriating financial aid funds, members of HU Resist, a student organization “dedicated to the liberation of Howard University,” infiltrated and occupied the administration building last Thursday to express their dissent at the university’s lack of accountability and transparency.

We’ve taken the administration building #StudentPowerHU

— #StudentPowerHU (@HUResist) March 29, 2018

HU Resist had formerly circulated a list of nine demands on Sunday, March 25th, with requests ranging from tuition freeze to the resignation of university President Wayne A.I. Frederick and his board of trustees. Teen Vogue reports that HU Resist also published a 40-page survey that reflected the overall attitudes of students toward the university.

Third-year law student Tyrone Hankerson, Jr. was identified as one of the individuals who embezzled over $400,000 of financial aid funds with published photographs of Hankerson’s lavish lifestyle becoming viral. In an interview with CBS News, Hankerson insisted upon his innocence, stating his “life has turned completely upside down.”

Student advocates are currently still in the process of meeting and negotiating with the university’s Board of Trustees. In a statement to Fox News on Tuesday, an unidentified student conveyed that students would reside on the premises for “as long as it takes” until their list of stipulations is finally attained.

HU Resist revealed snippets of its press release on Twitter at 5:40 pm EST Wednesday, affirming the student organization’s commitment to “occupy the administration building until the completion of the negotiations process involving the board of trustees and the lawyers of both parties involved.”