On Monday, Ohio University’s student organization, Black Panther Legacy, posted an announcement on Instagram for a “Multicultural Center Sit-In” scheduled for Tuesday. The description of the post stated “we won’t stand for the erasure of students of color at Ohio University. We will sit.”
On Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., students gathered in the OUr Space, which was once the location of OU’s Multicultural Center prior to the passage of Senate Bill 1. SB1 closed the university’s Multicultural Center, Pride Center and Women’s Center.
OU’s compliance with SB1 has caused tensions between university leadership and students on what the next available steps are, given the legal limitations of SB1.
AJ Jones, a senior studying criminology, is the president of Black Panther Legacy and explained the choice of a sit-in.
“I think a sit-in really encapsulates the community part of protest … A sit-in really prioritizes people being around each other and making a statement in a way that is comfortable and accessible,” Jones said.
The sit-in is a part of an overarching effort to make students' voices heard, called “Student Week of Action,” with one event scheduled per day, Monday through Friday. An Instagram post published by OU’s Student Justice for Palestine said “... over-compliance with fascist legislation such as SB1, their dismissal of student demands for protections against ICE and transparent investments or their delays of the faculty union contract, we have witnessed OU disrespect students and faculty.”
According to a previous report by The Post, the Multicultural Center was replaced by the “Visible Student Lounge,” a gathering area for students to “express their unique identities and perspectives.”
For most Bobcats, this choice did not alter the reality of the Multicultural Center’s closure, as to them, it was designed to openly and proudly celebrate an array of students from varying backgrounds.
Tuesday’s sit-in provided snacks, games, movies, catering and preparation for the walkout and march Thursday, as part of “Student Week of Action.”
“Community is the biggest part of the Multicultural Center … It’s ‘multi’ which means of all different cultures, all different students here at OU,” Jones said. “That's something that's really important to me as someone who was a first-gen student who hadn't been around a lot of people who were similar to me. I'd been around people with different identities my whole life, and so coming here, I wanted everyone to feel like they had a space somewhere.”
Jones said some of her favorite moments of her freshman year were in the Multicultural Center.
“I just remember coming in, and there were upperclassmen everywhere, talking, joking, laughing,” Jones said. “I come in, and Alison Moore is asking, ‘Hey, how are you,’ ‘How's your day going’ (and) ‘Here's some things that are happening’ … I really felt like it was a home.”
Brian Stephens, an assistant professor of African American studies, media studies and interdisciplinary arts was one of the many participants of the sit-in.
“I think it's important to show solidarity with students as they demand that administration lives up to its professed values of making respect visible,” Stephens said. “So far, they've behaved in a way that I don't think honors that commitment.”
Stephens expressed his frustration with SB1.
“I'm really disappointed that my colleagues in the Pride Center and other colleagues who were responsible for a lot of student mentoring lost their positions as a consequence of Ohio University’s compliance with an unjust, white supremacist, homophobic and misogynistic law,” Stephens said.
Tess Warren, a freshman studying sociology, is the Ohio Student Association OU chapter secretary and discussed Student Week of Action further.
“The goal of this Week of Action is to raise pressure on administration because none of us have been having effective meetings with administration,” Warren said. "… so this week of action is all of us coming together, both in protest and in celebration of what we have done in the community we have, while knowing that we have more to do.”
