Campus Abolition Research Team Publishes Essay in Diverse Issues

Charles H.F. Davis III, Jarell Skinner-Roy, and Brandy Jones co-author “Why HBCUs Need Abolition (And the Rest of Y’all Too)” in Diverse Issues in Higher Education online. The essay addresses recent incidents at colleges and universities in which police were called on Black students, including the most recent instance at Winston Salem State University on Monday. An excerpt from the essay, the authors write:

And, although it seems reasonable to excuse these instances as individual actions, the institutional response in the wake of national attention suggests WSSU is falsely equating the idea of safety with the presence and utility of police. As University Chancellor Robinson and other university officials have stated, both staff and campus police acted appropriately and in accordance with school policies and procedures to ensure the safety of students, faculty, and staff.

This perspective raises the question of how policies and procedures that encourage police intervention actually keep campus communities safer, especially when responding to incidents that do not require armed officers making arrests. A default position that prioritizes policies over people not only demonstrates failed institutional agency, but a lack of the moral and political courage historically associated with liberatory possibilities HBCUs collectively represent.

To read the essay in its entirety, please visit Diverse Issues in Higher Education here.