Delivering American University's news and views since 1925 | Monday, June 5, 2023
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Late in the evening on April 6, a video on Twitter surfaced that shows a white student at American University using and defending the usage of the n-word. Soon after, AU responded on Twitter stating that it does not condone the usage of a racist term.
The following piece is satire and should not be misconstrued for actual reporting. Any resemblance to a student, staff or faculty member is coincidental.
The following piece is satire and should not be misconstrued for actual reporting. Any resemblance to a student, staff or faculty member is coincidental.
In our new series, “Who is AU?” The Seagle will profile a new community member every two weeks, in an attempt to highlight the hopes, dreams and aspirations of our diverse community that hails from all corners of the New York tri-state area. We want to know more about the real you, and also the administration needs more propaganda to entice naive and innocent high school students.
University President Sylvia Burwell recently distributed the university administration’s six-month update to the Plan for Inclusive Excellence, AU’s diversity and inclusion strategy. What is noticeably absent from the update and the plan in general is information that would contextualize the campus climate that made the Inclusive Excellence plan necessary.
The following piece is satire and should not be misconstrued for actual reporting. Any resemblance to a student, staff or faculty member is coincidental.
The following piece is satire and should not be misconstrued for actual reporting. Any resemblance to a student, staff or faculty member is coincidental.
According to Tenleytown Historical Society, the land that American University exists on today was formerly “owned” in 1713 by Colonel Thomas Addison. Through multiple generations, Addison passed on a portion of 800 acres of land, known as Friendship tract, to William David Clark (W.D.C.) Murdock. Murdock lived from 1806 until 1886, according to his tombstone. In the 1850 United Federal Census, Murdock lists himself as a farmer. According to the Enslaved Persons in 1855-1862 Tax Assessments of Washington County, D.C., now named Washington, D.C, Murdock owned approximately 10 slaves by the names of William Hutchinson, John, George, Henry, Mary, Martha, Frank, Theodore, Margaret and Ellen Lee.
Students often describe the American University community as an idealistic bubble tucked inside Tenleytown. It’s a bubble that is home to a transient, multicultural student community with an endowment of nearly $600 million, Doug Kudravetz, the school’s chief financial officer, wrote in AU’s 2016-2017 annual report. But how did we get here?
Every year, the University celebrates its founding with a Founder’s Day Ball. Typically located at glamorous venues in the D.C. area, previous locations have included the National Portrait Gallery and the Newseum. Sometimes fueled by typical pregame alcohol consumption, hundreds of students sporting their most elegant attire convene, take photos and dance the evening away in celebration. This year, student government has selected the National Museum of African American History and Culture for its venue. And that feels racially tone-deaf.
In September 2015, the Faculty Senate unanimously approved a resolution on academic freedom. The resolution arrived amid a heated national conversation regarding freedom of speech and guest speakers using college campuses as platforms to promote “alternative,” often oppressive, views to the disapproval of their respective student bodies.
This semester, I've led a Diversity and Inclusion Committee at The Eagle. The purpose of the group was to reflect on and improve both our coverage of underrepresented communities on campus and diversity within our staff.
When I last wrote, I implored fellow African-Americans to claim their Blackness and argued that doing so was the blueprint to the temples of tomorrow, a testament to the many giants that walked before us. I said that our condition of Blackness, of tainted, of unwanted, of misunderstood, could be overcome one generation at a time. I proclaimed that our promised land was just over the ridge, that I could see it, that we could become the United States of America that Senator Barack Obama spoke about in 2004. Rest assured, I have not swayed.
This article originally appeared in The Eagle’s fall 2016 special edition.
