Posted by Shanequa Ramsey Delaware State University
on September 20, 2004 at 20:30:28:
My name is Shanequa Ramsey, and I attend Delaware State University, which up until now has been labeled an HBCU . I am a freshman, and even though I�ve been here for about 3 weeks, the future for this school seems terribly wrong to me. Just last year, the school had received a new president, Dr. Allen Sessoms. I don�t think Dr. Sessoms� hopes and plans for the school�s future were voiced until the summer, because since then things have been upside down. My first week of classes, half of my classes didn�t have teachers. Most of the teachers quit. Why? Because Dr. Sessoms feels that paying an adjunct, is better than having a professor who wants to keep his/her current pay. Just yesterday, one of my teachers for a major class quit because he wasn�t getting paid. There are lots of things that Dr. Sessoms wants for this school that the student body doesn�t agree with one bit. For example, Dr. Sessoms doesn�t want the black national anthem, �Lift Every Voice and Sing� played at the football games, pep rallies, or assemblies. He feels �there is a right time and a wrong time to play that song�. He wants to change the school colors from the Columbian Red and Blue that we wear proudly to Burgundy and Navy Blue. He wants to change the name of the school to what is rumored to be �Wilmington College in Dover�. He also, which is very important to me, wants to take away the Mass Communications Department in our school. This is important to me, because that is my major. I am a Broadcast Journalism major, and if he succeeds, I wont have a major, and I�ll be forced to transfer. However, that isn�t the most important issue. The important issue is the fact that he wants to take the title of HBCU away from Delaware State University. The main reason for coming here to Delaware State University was because it was an HBCU. He feels that HBCU means �all black�, and it doesn�t. people from all walks of life can come here. Some already do, and there is no problem with that. The problem is that when he sees us [the students], he�s not seeing us. He�s seeing scholarships and loans. When he sees the students of �Wilmington College in Dover� he sees rich students that can help him create these out of proportion and unnecessary buildings, filling them up with adjucts to teach the new students. He�s trying to push us out, but what he doesn�t realize is that without us, there is no Delaware State University. So what I am asking from you is your help. Our school is in danger, and that we�d appreciate it. Help us keep our school name, our school colors, and our school heritage. Help keep our Mass Communications departments, and any other department that might have the same fate. But most importantly, help me keep myself and my peers here, not allow Dr. Sessoms to succeed in pushing us out.
Thank you,
Shanequa Ramsey