Invading the turf
In the late ’60s and early ’70s, the Pan-African Studies Department taped lectures and played the videotapes for later courses because the department couldn’t afford to pay the lecturers again. Moore, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, says the university never expected the department to take off and actually stay.
Marquis Myers, a freshman pre-med major, reads a newspaper in the computer lab in Oscar Ritchie Hall. The room is covered with historical murals, thise one depicting the shooting of Malcom X.
When Crosby was at Kent State, he says he would never let the university schedule classes in the culture center of Oscar Ritchie Hall in order to preserve the tradition of African-American culture there. “It’s going back to what used to be. They’re taking away those privileges once granted to black students,” Crosby says.
Now, according to Crosby and BUS, because of the $200,000 in renovations over the summer, courses from outside the Pan-African Studies Department are being scheduled in areas previously designated strictly as part of the culture center.
“I think the renovations played a role in moving those classes,” Cooper, president of BUS, says. “It’s basically saying, it’s good enough for the black students when it’s all run-down. But now that it’s improved, it’s good enough for other people.”
Okantah agrees. “My skepticism said to me the university might not have been so quick to renovate if they didn’t already have a plan in the works to schedule more classes from other departments,” he says.
Tom Euclide, director in the Office of the University Architect, doesn’t see things the same way as Okantah and Crosby. “It’s very common, if not the norm, to have many classes outside the building the department is in,” Euclide says. “The department gets first preference, and then others can use the space.”
“Renovations have been needed in this building for a long time. We can’t quite get the technology that we need in here because the building is so outdated.”
Doing the renovations and letting others from outside the department use the building could destroy the sanctity of it, Crosby says. “I think there are competing things happening here,” he says. “When BUS protested for some renovations, they were talking about renovating the culture center, not the entire building. Black United Students are being dealt a deal. Something is happening here that isn’t to the center’s advantage. The registrar is only doing what they do with every other building on the campus.”
But the building will remain committed to the mission set by the founders, according to Badejo, the chair of the department. “We are part of the university community, and we certainly understand the problems the university is having in respect to space constraints. We see a need to try to work with the registrar’s office,” Badejo says. “Renovations have been needed in this building for a long time. We can’t quite get the technology that we need in here because the building is so outdated.”
A 1948 drawing of the proposed Student Union, now Oscar Ritchie Hall. (Archive illustration from the 1948 Chestnut Burr)
Crosby sees the university’s reluctance to approve an anti-discrimination policy and to renovate the building as signs that the renovations are a double-edged sword — an improvement for the department in some ways, but also one that might push the department to be more integrated with classes from outside the department. This could eliminate what Okantah calls a “safe haven for black students.”
“They are ruining the concept of the Center for Pan-African Culture,” Crosby says. “The racism is still at work. They’re still trying to reduce the fact that black students have rights on the campus.”
The challenge continues
Oscar Ritchie Hall’s renovation presents another challenge — one that many haven’t considered: While the hall is being renovated, the university will have to find a temporary home for the occupants there. “There’s no empty building to move to,” says Euclide, director in the Office of the University Architect.
Future funding for renovation projects is still tentative because of continual reductions in state funds, but Oscar Ritchie will be renovated, he says.
The new Oscar Ritchie Hall will still be devoted to the Pan-African Studies Department but also will have classes from outside the department because that is standard, Euclide says.
“Our ignorance is greater than our knowledge, which means we need: HARD WORK AND STUDY.”
Considering the variety of strong, conflicting opinions, there might be no clear solution.
A sign in Oscar Ritchie Hall near the paintings of black civil rights leaders such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. provides the best indication of an answer to the ongoing problems between Pan-African Studies, Oscar Ritchie Hall and BUS and the university administration.
It reads: “Our ignorance is greater than our knowledge, which means we need: HARD WORK AND STUDY.”
The Burr is produced by students at Kent State University twice per academic year.No part of The Burr may be reprinted without permission.