Kent State University students, wearing all black, marched across campus Wednesday, holding a “funeral” for the now-shuttered LGBTQ+ Center, Women's Center and Multicultural Center that they say state legislators killed with Senate Bill 1.
While decrying the loss of support services for specific groups of students, the protesters also called on the university to not "over comply" with the bill, worrying further aid, scholarships and other unique opportunities for students will be taken away.
Senate Bill 1 calls for universities to end all diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The university has previously said that provision of the bill, which went into effect over the summer, meant it would need to shutter the centers.
The Ohio Student Association, a statewide student activist group that has protested Senate Bill 1, organized the protest along with other Kent State student groups.
Nica Delgado, a graduate student and vice president of the Kent State chapter of the Ohio Student Association, said the bill means marginalized students have fewer places to call their own on college campuses in Ohio. She pointed to several touchstones in Kent State's history as examples of how the campus has been a welcoming environment: Black History Month was first celebrated at Kent State in 1970, and she said the college opened the first LGBTQ+ studies program in Ohio in 2001.
"Our campus homes have been cut to comply with this legislation," she said. "Something irreplaceable was stolen from us by people who will never understand what they have taken. We lost programs that saved lives."
Onyx Gaddis, a third-year student with the Ohio Student Association, who uses they/them pronouns, said the Multicultural Center was an important support for students like them.
"I already felt like an outsider in my classes at times," Gaddis told the gathered students. "One of the few Black students in a room, one of few queer students in the room, and sometimes the only student that held both identities in the world. I'm disappointed in the way things have panned out since SB 1's passing, especially because the university hasn't given us any clear plans for how they'll navigate this new era of higher education. I feel lost, confused, helpless, and most of all, unsafe."
The students had three demands for the university:
- A public statement "acknowledging campus changes and their implications for academic freedom and student belonging"
- A clear plan to "preserve and protect belonging for our marginalized students even as state mandates attempt to dismantle previous support structures"
- Transparent communication with students about how the university will respond to the legislation
The university did not provide a response Wednesday, instead pointing to a previous statement Eboni Pringle, senior vice president for student life, made in June about the closure of the centers. At the time, the university had said it remained committed to providing support services to "all students."
"While change is difficult, our mission remains the same: to foster a campus where every student feels a sense of belonging, has space to learn about themselves and others, and can build the community they desire to live, learn and grow in," Pringle wrote. "We will continue to work with our students, staff, faculty and alumni to identify additional ways to support our students. "
Delgado said student organizations are stepping up to help students who feel unwelcome on campus in the wake of the closure of the identity centers at Kent State. Many of them, like the Ohio Student Association and Black United Students, an organization devoted to supporting Black students on campus, are housed in Oscar Ritchie Hall. The hall is named for a former sociology professor at Kent State and the first African American faculty member at a state university in Ohio. Delgado suggested students go there to find support.
