Mychal Smith

It also doesn’t surprise me when my words are misread, misinterpreted, and misunderstood. That story was not written in order to bash Hampton’s administration, embarrass the school in any way, or just for the sake of being a troublemaker. I love my school and would love to see it flourish in the years to come.

However, I don’t believe it can do so if the current administration continues its outdated, hypocritical, manipulative, deceitful, and repressive practices.Now, it’s easy to recite these key phrases because people have heard them time and time again, and at this point they seem devoid of any real meaning. In the case of Hampton University, though, these are the exact words that are needed.

I have witnessed firsthand how Hampton’s seemingly anti-student agenda has negatively affected student morale and pride in their school. In September 2007, the fraternities Alpha Phi Alpha and Iota Phi Theta collaborated in order to host a rally in support of the Jena Six.

 Even though all of the paperwork had been signed off and everything was approved, the vice president for student affairs decided only two days before the rally was to be held that there was a scheduling conflict with a pep rally for the day’s football game. Students were told that this pep rally had been planned for months, but a little investigation showed that claim to be untrue. I can’t speak on the administration’s intentions, because I don’t know what they were, but their actions were deceitful.

During this same time, controversy arose surrounding the student handbook, the document that outlines the rules and regulations that students must follow while attending Hampton University.

There were key changes in the handbook, including the GPA requirement for students who hold leadership positions, as well as the omission of the student judiciary portion of the Student Government Association.The handbook also includes a rule that students must follow a directive of any school official or be punished. The way it is worded implies that you must do anything that an employee of Hampton University asks of you or you will face a punishment, and the punishment is not clearly defined.While the content of the handbook itself is controversial, this situation reached beyond that.

When the incoming freshmen arrived, they were told that they would need to sign a document saying that they received, read, and understood the handbook. They never actually received the handbook, as this year the handbook was available online in a read-only PDF format that could not be accessed by everyone at the beginning of the year.

Still, they were required to turn in the document saying they were able to read and review the handbook. And while the freshman class wasn’t aware of the rules that existed, the upper-classmen were unaware the rules had changed. No notification was sent out to returning students that a new version of the handbook was in effect for 2007.

When questioned about the situation, the vice president for student affairs claimed that there were hard copies of the handbook available, in limited quantity, and could be picked up at the dean of men and women’s office.

The handbooks never made it there.

Again, I cannot speculate as to what the intention of the administrators was in this situation. All I can do is report what I saw. And what I saw was that these incidents were not isolated. There was a pattern of this type of behavior from the administration that has continued until now, and probably will continue unchecked until some major shakeups occur from within.

As far as I can see, that won’t happen anytime soon. The folks in power do not care about the concerns of their students, the faculty, the alumni, or anyone else for that matter. Their primary concern, outside of money, is to maintain an image, a false image at that, of Hampton University as the perfect breeding ground for the ultimate bourgeois Negro. In reality,

Hampton University is the perfect breeding ground for animosity. But they refuse to change.  

Articles in the Voices section represent the views of the individual writers and do not reflect the opinions of Black College Wire.

Mychal Smith was the 2007-08 editor in chief of the Hampton Script.