From: richard@auvax1.adelphi.edu
Subject: Black Students Rally At Adelphi
Organization: Adelphi University, Garden City NY
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 01:08:57 GMT

 On The Rally 

	By this time, most of you at Adelphi should know that there was some
form of civil disturbance on campus that occurred within the past week.  What
many of you may not know, especially the White students, is why it was done.  
It was and continues to be covered by News 12 Long Island, Channel 4, The New
York Times, Newsday and others as well as the NAACP  and I assume that, by now,
there must be a lot of confusion out there.  I hope that this article will help
to clarify the reasons and facts for those who wish to know, and who possibly
want to get involved.
	First, it must be understood that what occurred on Wednesday at noon
was a RALLY.  Not a protest, or riot, or anything of such nature as would
incorporate the use of violence as was the opinion suggested to me and others
by several Whites.  It was a controlled and thoroughly democratic attempt to
correspond, face to face, with the Administration of Adelphi headed by Dr.
Dimandopaulous and so far has succeeded in turning wheels long since seized up
by beauracratic rust.  All the decisions taken were agreed upon by the
collective, and this will always be the case; then, now, and on.  In order to
shorten a long story I will use the following approach to summarize the events
of that week.	  
Tuesday 10th Nov.:
	Lawrence Brown presented the ideas behind the rally to over eighty
students who came to hear them at the APO (African Peoples Organization)
meeting , and it was decided that the request should be for President
Dimandopaulous to meet with all concerned in an open forum, in order for him to
personally hear and respond to 'minority' student concerns and witness the
widespread unhappiness of the students.  And, after the forum, a larger forum
to follow at a later date in order to get final answers to several defined
points of concern.  Warnings and directives were given about proper conduct at
the rally, and the time and place to meet, and we all departed.

  Wednesday 11th Nov.:
	After meeting in front of the Library, we marched  to the entrance of
Levermore facing the U.C.  and upon arriving there were met by A.U. Security
who prevented us from entering the building.  Then Dean Rheins and Dean Crafta,
along with others, walked over and were given the request to be presented to
the President who was in his office at the time.  Dean Rheins returned in
minutes with a typewritten and signed letter stating that the President had
agreed to meet with a delegation of seven students the following Monday.  This
letter, upon the agreement of all, did not meet the requirements of the
original request  which was to meet with all of the students,  and was
summarily torn up and returned.  The request was then repeated that if the
President could meet with seven he could meet with seven hundred or several
thousand and say the same things, and that we wanted a signed letter from him
agreeing to this simple request.  The students spent over an hour waiting on a
reply, and it was made clear to Security by us that locking the door was a
violation of law as it presented a fire hazard.   Lawrence then suggested that
we enter the lobby and sit there making sure not to block the passages and
doors as that would then give Security a reason to expel us from the building. 
As we waited and waited, it was decided that we would wait all day and night if
necessary until our request was met.   Dean Crafta and Dean Rheins then
appeared and took turns reading  to us the Adelphi and State laws that we were
breaking by our presence in the lobby.  Supposedly, we were 'disrupting the
business of the University' and 'inhibiting ingress and egress from the
building', and were told that we had thirty minutes to leave the building or be
subject to suspension and possibly expulsion.  Lawrence then opened suggestions
on what to do next in light of this threat and it was decided that we should
return to the steps outside.  This we did and we continued waiting for another
hour in the cold until the press started to arrive with their cameras.  At that
point several students went to speak to them, as other student leaders
addressed the crowd that was continuing to swell in number.  As security became
more lax in view of the media coverage, we decided to reenter the building and
face the consequences.  The media entered the building with us, and we all took
turns going for food, pillows, blankets, and the like. 
	At around 8pm, Dean Rheins came to inform us that regular University
business ended in the building at 10pm and at that at 10:30pm  the building
would be closed for the day.  If we chose to remain there past that time we
would face severe consequences, which were not then named.  At this time
Lawrence Brown once again opened up for discussion the course of action we
would all decide to take.  I suggested that we all stay and see for ourselves
if the President's ego was so big that he would actually have us all arrested,
suspended or expelled rather than put in writing the request to meet with all
of us, a request that he had by then agreed to and transmitted to us through
every other medium than from himself, in person, though he was only a few feet
away.   This agreement, which he refused to put in writing, was obtained only
after Prof. A. Makapela, an African History professor, went to speak personally
with the President in order to convince him that we were actually serious, and
threatened to resign his job if the President continued to refuse.  Why?
Lawrence and student leader John Cobos had glanced the President earlier that
night laughing at us in the hall, as the doors that separated us were swung
open by one of the Deans exiting the lobby.  So, the majority decided to stay
no matter what and as we waited, with the only two Black security officers at
Adelphi guarding the doors to the hallway, students began to relate and discuss
all of the bigoted and unfair experiences they have been continually exposed to
as students at Adelphi.  
	At ten twenty-nine fifty-nine Dean Rheins appeared to once again to
request that we leave the building.  A resounding 'No' was the reply.  He then
read off in detail the various consequences of our actions, BUT, that  the
President expressed a wish not to follow through on the threats and that we
could remain in the building overnight up to the time of the forum with him the
following day.   At this point, after two hours of rehearsing what to do when
the Police arrived, we decided that it would benefit none to remain there and
continue to play chicken with the Administration.  So we left; hungry, tired
and keenly aware of the dim way we are viewed by the University. 
  
Thursday 12th Nov.:
	At 11am the President, escorted by security, entered the theater for
this first  forum.  The press was there also but were stopped at the door and
told that they could not enter the building.  As the President paced the stage
with the deans and others sitting in back of him, and with other administrative
personnel sitting in the front wings, students directed their questions and
comments at him, and he answered back.  Though I cannot relate all that
occurred here, the general perceived attitude of the President was one of
mediated rudeness.  For  example:  A senior,  Jocelyn Gooding, related the
story of how she was told by the Sociology department that African American
history was not acceptable and that she would have to take Italian American
history.  All other history courses such as Chinese history were acceptable,
all but African American History.  The President's reply to a senior? "Change
your major".  The President also went on to suggest that she had made a foolish
mistake by taking the course without researching it to see the requirements. 
He apparently totally missed the point that the demands of the department may
be racially biased.  Add to this the repeated uttering of phrases like 'in a
civilized manner' and 'like intelligent human beings' and one can begin to draw
some dark conclusions.  The forum ended with the understanding that the
President would be presented with a list of concerns to be discussed in detail
at the second forum, set by the President for the 25th of November, and that if
a response in writing was not received by noon the next day, a rally would be
held at the NCAA games that Saturday.   After most had left, The President was
pressed by Harriet Servio, a graduate student, for a written agreement to the
second forum which was picked up at the agreed time of four thirty that same
day.   The response to the list of concerns was picked up the following day, so
that there is undeniable evidence that the President was made aware of the
concerns of the students.
	So what does this all mean?  Come Nov. 25th, There will be a forum with
Administration, Faculty and students present, all prepared to discuss the
issues and hear the final decisions of the University, and until such time the
code of silence will be broken.  Understand that no longer will 'minority'
students here keep their mouths shut or bullshit to other visiting prospective
'minority' students who are being suckered into coming here, to then be robbed
and abandoned.  Our cause is just , in that the University must live up to it's
promises and its creed "The Truth Shall Make Us Free", and give us what we pay
for and expect.  They, like the government of the nation, must be reminded that
they are the employees of the people, and are not in power to make themselves
rich.  A lot of us and our parents struggle to make the seventeen plus thousand
dollar a year tuition, and as I told the president, " We are aware that you
have a wonderful vision for the university, but as long as we are helping to
pay for it,  we are going to be part of that dream."

Note.  These are just the bare bones details, and the reasons would take up the
entire Delphian and then some.  For further info, obtain a copy of the next
issue of Afrika Unbound, coming out in December.  Otherwise, inquiries may be
directed to me via the Caribbean Club Box in U.C. 109.

Richard Dennison
President, Caribbean Cultural Awareness Club
Chairman, Afrikan Concerns Association


>Reprint from an article that is to appear this Wednesday in the school paper
>The Delphian.  Peace....But Not Without Justice!
 
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Richard L. Dennison               -\--/-  Internet: richard@auvax1.adelphi.edu
President, Caribbean Club        |  \/  | Fone:(516)352-1926 Fax:(516)877-3296
Chairman, Afrikan Concerns Assn  |  /\  | Caribbean Cultural Awareness Club
Editor In Chief, AFRIKA UNBOUND!  -/--\-  Adelphi U., Garden City, N.Y. 11530
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american