Students lead the way in hopes of creating a more diverse and accepting campus
By Drake Keeler, Senior Journalism Major
It’s undeniable that a change happened at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln during the 2020-21 academic year.
The line has been said for more than a year now: After George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020, many groups in the United States, from colleges to sports leagues to companies, examined how they could do better in the fight against racism.
Statements of support were made, and conversations were had at the time, and the university was an active participant.
But over time, the commitments of some have waned. As of May 2021, less than half of U.S. adults had favorable views of the Black Lives Matter movement, a significant drop-off from May 2020, according to polling by Forbes. Criticisms have been made of pledges that have not nearly been fulfilled. That raises the question: What truly has changed at our university?
For ASUN president and senior political science and global studies major Batool Ibrahim, she’s seen a shift take place in Lincoln in the link between administration and underrepresented students.
“I think that this past year has made UNL recognize how important diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work is,” she said. “I think they finally started listening to students, especially Black students, that raised concerns.
“Students have really taken the opportunity to demand for space and for DEI efforts on campus. And I think that the university has been forced to listen to them.”
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In many ways, students led the charge in Nebraska’s diversity efforts. Ibrahim, who also is president of the Black Student Union (BSU), was part of this charge. BSU launched a donation-funded care bags initiative during the summer of 2020 to provide essential supplies to community members in need. The group raised more than $14,000.
Along with that, BSU organized protests, sit-ins, conversations on racial equity, called for a special Nebraska Legislature session and made a statement calling on the university to do better in responding to racism on campus.
The statement came after members of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity were caught stealing and throwing away Black Lives Matter signs from multiple homes. They went under investigation for a potential “bias incident,” but BSU argued that university leaders should have condemned the action.
Two demands were made in the letter, the first being that UNL publish an annual bias report and the second being for mandatory bias training in the Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Council for recruitment and members. Last November, the university made changes to its bias reporting processes.
“As students, our goal should be to graduate, not do your jobs,” the statement addressing university leaders said. “... POC (people of color) students have been no less than expected to provide overwhelming amounts of uncompensated emotional labor to administration.”
The Black Student Union isn’t the only group that made waves over the past school year. The Asian Student Union played a role in events like the Stop Asian Hate protest.
Charlie Foster, assistant vice chancellor for inclusive student excellence and director of the Office of Academic Success and Intercultural Services (OASIS), said that students speaking up is necessary.
“Student voices are vital. They bring to us every four years what our focus should be, they let us know how we should be thinking about the world that you want to create, and so that’s exciting in itself,” Foster said. “Students who are seeking to make change means that we are doing our jobs correctly, that we are pushing you to be able to use your voice in a way that is impactful.”
This year, the university has highlighted students for Black History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Pride Month. Foster said she’s happy to see the university recognize marginalized students in that way, and that Ibrahim brings representation to the student government.
“I’m encouraged that we have a president of ASUN who is female, is a woman of color and speaks to religious diversity (as a Muslim),” Foster said. “She is evidence of how we see ourselves on this campus.”
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Nebraska athletes and coaches also spoke out this year, perhaps in larger numbers than ever before.
In spring 2020, several Husker coaches made statements addressing the death of George Floyd. Men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg called the events “heartbreaking.”
In August of that year, the Huskers men’s basketball team stood up again four days after of Jacob Blake was shot by police in Kenosha, Wis. They stood in front of the Hendricks Training Complex, all wearing black shirts. Most came up to the podium to give the name of a victim of police brutality. Guards Teddy Allen and Kobe Webster delivered prepared statements.
“We cannot allow this great country to be filled with so much hatred and anger toward one another,” Webster said at the time. “It is not a place we want to live in knowing that when we leave the house, we may not return because someone views us as a threat.”
When sports seasons came along last fall, Nebraska teams did a variety of things to promote racial equality. Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams wore patches on their jerseys. Nebraska women’s gymnastics wore red, black and green ribbons in honor of Black History Month.
One of the more notable occurrences of athletes speaking up came from the newly-formed Minority Student-Athlete Collective. In September 2020, multiple athletes and coaches spoke at a rally against police brutality and racial injustice in front of Memorial Stadium. Then-Nebraska athletics diversity and inclusion director DaWon Baker helped the group come together and organize the event and was one of the main speakers.
“Our student-athletes continually saw the national narrative around social injustice,” Baker said then. “They could no longer sit by and wait for change.”
Along with the rally, the group released a letter a month earlier along with demands to the university.
“The motto ingrained on Memorial Stadium states, ‘Not the victory but the action: Not the goal but the game: In the deed the glory.’ This is our deed as Nebraska student-athletes,” the letter read. “We hope that Nebraska’s administration will partner with us in order to make Nebraska what Nebraska must become.”
Demands included more representation in Nebraska Athletics’ administration, modules and workshops for incoming freshmen and all coaches, 0.5% of athletic department proceeds to be donated to Black-owned businesses and a memorial dedicated to George Flippin, Nebraska’s first Black football player.
The presence of Flippin, who attended the university from 1891-94, was the reason that Missouri refused to play the teams’ scheduled game in 1892, forfeiting 1-0. Flippin was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 1974.
The Flippin request also asked that the university acknowledge the racism he faced during his time on the football team when he was denied captainship. The Nebraska football team wore helmet stickers honoring him for its game against Ohio State. Nebraska football head coach Scott Frost (’97) spoke at a press conference about how important it was to make that gesture.
“I didn’t know much about George Flippin before this year,” he said. “If you haven’t read about him, it’s an unbelievable story. It’s fascinating, and I encourage our fans to go research that. You can’t honor everybody; you can’t do as much as you ever want to do to honor someone but honoring him I think is a good start.”
While the status of each specific demand is unclear, the group met with then-athletic director Bill Moos and the athletic department on multiple occasions to talk about how they can make progress.
Foster, who is on the Husker Athletics Diversity and Inclusion Committee, was inspired by seeing student-athletes speak out, and acknowledged that it can be an overwhelming task for them to balance so much.
“It shows the values and beliefs of the university, when you hear our student athletes using their voice and using it in a way that is a positive use of their platform,” Foster said. “We recognize that’s hard for these young people. They have a particular focus in their sport, they have the whole charge of being a student at the same time.”
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As Nebraska heads into another school year looking to make progress, students may continue to be some of the first to speak up. Something Ibrahim sees as a next step is better equipping those students with the tools to speak up when it is time.
“We can’t just have first-year students go to Husker Dialogues (a diversity and inclusion event designed to introduce first-year students to tools they can use to engage in meaningful conversations) and then we’re like, ‘OK, you’re anti-racist now,’ ” she said. “We need to have more classes surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion in the classroom. In each specific college they should be required to have some type of course addressing inequities and life experiences of marginalized people in their courses.”
She’s making a bit of history herself, being the first Black ASUN president. That accomplishment is somewhat bittersweet and helped to bring about another one of her goals.
Ibrahim said that she had trouble confirming whether or not UNL has had a Black student president before. According to her, that shows that the university can improve upon celebrating marginalized students and their histories. Doing so will help others realize that there is a place for them in Lincoln.
“I’m the first, but how do I make sure I’m not the last? How can I make sure that Black students know that there is a student government that they should be involved in that is a space for them,” she said. “The first thing is making sure our own student government is inclusive. And through that, making sure other entities on campus are inclusive to students of color.”
“Students have really taken the opportunity to demand for space and for diversity efforts on campus. And I think that the university has been forced to listen to them.”
– ASUN President Batool Ibrahim
Ibrahim also has goals to make campus feel safer for students of color by putting a focus on making sure incidents of bias are handled properly. Most of all, she wants to empower students to get involved and use their voices.
Over the past year, many conversations around these topics and more took place. Foster played a large part in organizing some of those conversations, and she aims to not let them fade away and instead make them part of the everyday life of students and staff alike.
“Five years ago, it was something new and fresh. Now, it’s a part of what we do at the University of Nebraska,” she said. “So, creating regular things that we do on campus to change the way that we live is, as I often say, changing the world one interaction at a time.”
Foster and Ibrahim both know that the UNL isn’t done on its diversity and inclusion journey. However, they also agree that 2020-21 was a good start for individuals and the university to build on.
“That anti-racist journey that we’re going to go through as a university, I think we’re at the start of it,” Ibrahim said. “And I think, sadly, it’s going to be really slow. But I think that was a good start, like kind of talking about it and starting to have conversations about it.”
As the years go on, it’ll be a collaborative effort between students and faculty, according to Foster. University staff is meant to equip students with the knowledge they need, and the students can use that knowledge to push for a better world.
“The purpose of the University of Nebraska is to educate our students. This is a remarkable time, where we can educate students about the world that they live in, and how they can make things better,” Foster said. “This is an opportunity to help them again, create the world that they’re looking to create.”