The protest is SDS’s second of the year, as a part of the group’s Increase Black Enrollment Campaign at USF. Along with the first protest in January, Thursday’s protest comes with students’ concern with USF’s yearly trend of decreasing Black enrollment.
Thursday’s protest is set to begin at 3 p.m. at USF’s Lifsey House and go on until 4:30 p.m.
“Black enrollment at USF has been dropping for more than 10 years and is currently at 9.4%, the lowest it has been in decades,” SDS’s media alert reads. “This is THREE times as less as what the surrounding area's African American population is (27%).”
According to USF’s self-reported student diversity data, the school’s highest percentage of Black students was 12% during the 2008-2009 school year, across the USF Tampa, USF St. Petersburg and USF Sarasota-Manatee locations as a whole.
“USF has a responsibility to the local community to reflect its demographics and community,” the alert reads. “Unfortunately, USF Admin has made it very clear that they are much more concerned with the 'success' of the school rather than provide more opportunities to members of the local African American community.”
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This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2020.