WARREN — A student-led report presented in August by the Ohio Student Association suggests the black college student experience is degrading.

During a conference hosted by program director Rachael Collyer, representatives presented data from a field test, consisting of responses from undergraduate students at 12 colleges. The data points in the Black Student Equity Report looked at student success, government oversight, engagement, financial aid and more.

Four recommendations — creating a statewide collaborative for institutions of higher education, building a system of accountability for campus policing, ensuring all Ohioans have access to and complete higher education, and protecting black students from harmful anti-critical race theory / anti-diversity, equity and inclusion) legislation — were made in the report.

OSA is a statewide grassroots organization led by young people and anchored by student-led chapters on college campuses across the state. It produced the report in collaboration with education scholars Everrett A. Smith of the University of Cincinnati, and Antar A. Tichavakunda of the University of California-Santa Barbara.

“We can’t afford to backslide when it comes to racial equity on campuses,” Collyer said. “Especially in the aftermath of affirmative action being overturned a couple months ago, as well as attacks on being able to have diversity, equity and inclusion programming, and mandatory training at universities in Ohio — as well as attacks on teaching the truth in whole departments, including black studies departments, coming to the chopping block when it comes to legislation like Senate Bill 83.”

The 12 private and public institutions participating are Case Western Reserve University, University of Dayton, Wilberforce University, Central State University, Cleveland State University, Kent State University, The Ohio State University, Tri-C, University of Akron, University of Cincinnati, University of Toledo and Wright State University.

Prentiss Haney, co-executive director of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, said the report is the first of its kind.

“Students across Ohio and the OSA went out and collected hundreds of stories about their own experience,” Haney said. “Actual students drove a process to write a report about what’s happening with black students on campus.”

Collyer noted the study was conducted by a multiracial body of students. Black students headed the process, but students of any race were open to participate in the recordings.

CUT LIKE A KNIFE

The OSA built the report following the case of Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, in which race-based affirmative action toward campus admissions was ruled unconstitutional.

“What message is sent to black students if in 2020 promises were made, ‘that we will create better conditions, make sure that students can thrive, learn and actually go into the workforce,’ and then come 2023, the highest court in our land decides to strip away those very protections that universities in Ohio said they would expand?” Haney asked.

Haney said the report is a direct action on the universities, “to say, ‘we don’t have time to wait’ any more, for inaction.”

One of the 361 students who participated, Brielle Shorter, is a sophomore at Ohio State, and associate vice chair of student experience for the Undergraduate Black Caucus. Shorter said growing up in a suburb with a nuclear family structure seemed like an idyllic setting.

“But even in this perfect picture, there was an undercut of racialized strife and tension that had clouded this perfect picture of a childhood for me,” she said.

Shorter said she faced disparaging comments about black people, uttered by classmates while discussing an upcoming election. The Cincinnati native explained that such comments cut through her like a knife.

After turning to a school counselor for support, though, “her response was just a box of tissues, and a cold report sheet that I had to fill out so I can send it to the principal,” Shorter said. For her, the incident “showcased the harsh reality of the lack of support that we face.”

Ohio’s educational landscape is under a shadow of anti-critical race theory legislation, Shorter explained. CRT is defined by Oxford Languages as a set of ideas holding that racial bias is inherent in many parts of western society, especially in its legal and social institutions, on the basis of them having been primarily designed for and implemented by white people.

“It’s casting a looming uncertainty over all of our shared values and futures,” she said.

The report states 65% of students are unsure of how anti-CRT bills might affect their higher education experience.

“These two roads converge,” Shorter said. “These paths of uncertainty create a perfect storm, and they threaten to perpetuate the marginalization of our people.”

Shorter said students will send the report to administrations, while educating students across campaigns demanding universities step up and move an agenda “that actually shows black students in Ohio.”

FEELING UNEASY

The Black Student Equity report states 46% of black respondents at predominantly white institutions said their racial identity led to added stress, while 67% of black respondents at such institutions either were unsure or disagreed with the sentiment that their university valued black students.

University of Cincinnati’s Everett Smith, associate professor of higher education and program coordinator of educational leadership, designed the survey.

“Black students are having a plethora of experiences that mirror what’s going on, on a lot of college campuses,” Smith said. “Engagement and support is critical for student success. We know that, and it’s just as critical for historically underrepresented and marginalized students, especially black students on college campuses.”

“One of the things that really stood out was that students knew where to go on campus for support,” Smith continued. “They had a very good understanding of their college environment.”

As for student engagement, Smith said, some students said they had very negative experiences while engaging with colleagues and faculty. Other students felt they went through uncomfortable experiences, or didn’t feel comfortable going to certain areas of campus.

“Students knew where to go for parties and things like that, or where to congregate with other black students. But we also saw … that students, on multiple occasions, witnessed black parties being broken up. They were apprehensive about going around historically white spaces on campus, and feeling unsafe. And when it came to things like mental health and seeking support, they knew where to go on campus. But several students reported that they didn’t feel comfortable seeking help in those spaces.”

GRADING THE GRADERS

The Black Student Equity report also asked students to grade their institutions.

“Many students graded their institution at a ‘B’ or a ‘C’,” Smith said. “Very few graded theirs lower than a C, but typically very few students graded at an ‘A’.”

The top five responding universities were Central State, Ohio State, Kent State, Cleveland State and Wilberforce.

Tamyra Otkins, a junior psychology and childhood studies major at Case Western Reserve University, said despite her college’s location, in a predominantly black city, the population of black students does not reflect the community as much as it could.

“In fact, according to recent statistics provided by the university, 7% of all students are African American, which not only doesn’t reflect the city, it doesn’t even reflect the state of Ohio,” Otkins said.

Otkins suggested “a lack of representation in the student body can lead, and has led to, detrimental effects among the black students … it can be isolating, not seeing much of yourself in the university, which makes it easy to feel like your voice is not strong enough in classrooms, let alone in the university.”