Black Student Association challenges nondiscrimination clause

UHCL’s Black Student Association (BSA) is challenging the nondiscrimination clause required by the university for all student organizations to include in their constitution. The clause has to be included in a student organization’s constitution in order for official recognition as a registered student organization.

The clause says “The university provides equal treatment and opportunity to all persons without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status except where such distinction is required by law.”

BSA explains their reasoning for challenging the clause

BSA’s decision to challenge the clause comes as a result of their feeling that the university is not living up to the clause. BSA asserts the clause is not a factual statement and they consider including the clause to be promoting a false testimony about the university. 

“Our organization refuses to spread harmful information that threatens the progression of our university,” the organization’s members said in a collective statement. 

The organization said they feel their time at UHCL has shown a common theme in advancement as self-preservation and said the compulsory clause forces students to endorse UHCL as an inclusive institution, something they feel is false.

“Students are rarely put first,” BSA said. “After tedious complaints and cries for help, the administration declines on amending critical policies.”

In their collective statement, written by President Sheridan Allison, Secretary Lisa Jatta and Vice-President Alyssa Shotwell, BSA said a proper non-discrimination clause should be “conducive to establishing the idea of a safe space whereas the actual clause makes sure to give UHCL complete false credibility.”

“UHCL is more than welcome to manipulate their marketing materials in whatever way that benefits them, but to force students to regurgitate those same lies is just disturbing,” the statement said. “By making student leaders endorse UHCL as this welcoming place of inclusion, the university’s attempts to protect itself become even more obvious.”

BSA likened the university to other businesses that have recently declared their support for diversity and anti-racism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd but still continue “immoral” practices. 

“UHCL could be the change we need, but it’s a lot easier to say that we’re all about equality than actually being about it,” BSA said. “As long as social injustices live comfortably on this campus, we won’t promote these claims.”

BSA said their ultimate goal is to establish transparency and accountability. 

“The UH System needs to prioritize becoming the institution that the clause describes instead of trying to ‘fake it until [they] make it.’ We want actual equity across the board and honest reflections of shortcomings as they occur,” BSA said.

BSA said they have begun taking steps to challenge the clause by starting their own initiative to support the Black community in response to what they feel is UHCL’s “minimal commitment” to supporting the community. 

“We’re continuously curating a list of social injustices that regularly present themselves in higher education,” BSA said. “We advocate for all peoples, as our elders have shown us the way.”

The association hosted its own open forum July 15 at 4 p.m. through Zoom for Black community members to share ideas and solutions for how UHCL can better support them. 

“While it is absolutely not our job to do these things, no one else has,” BSA said. “We’ll then prioritize and delegate before presenting the relevant policymakers with these desired changes. Our work will be declared done once UHCL lives up to these standards that they so proudly proclaim.”

BSA also said that despite their mission initially being an independent effort, many staff members have stepped up to establish workgroups and committees that are looking to complete these same objectives.

“The UH System needs to prioritize becoming the institution that the clause describes instead of trying to ‘fake it until [they] make it.’ We want actual equity across the board and honest reflections of shortcomings as they occur.”

“We find it important to influence this kind of behavior,” BSA said. “As remodeling, the morals of UHCL has never been our job, we’ve decided to serve in a role that demands accountability instead of doing the work for them. As far as the actual clause, we are looking to continue to have conversations with those involved and avoid being discouraged as we maneuver through expected obstacles. We have no plans to bring these topics to SGA just yet as we already have the attention of those in power and we consistently open our organization up to those who wish to support and hear about our activity. If we deem it necessary throughout the journey, that is something to revisit.”

BSA also said other student organizations should take similar stands against the university.

“We imagine that those with any amount of integrity would find it difficult to sleep at night knowing that they encouraged people to commit to our community on false pretenses,” they said. “Student organizations should challenge everything. UHCL only exists because of students. Many efforts to create change go unheard due to students not realizing their impact.”

Administrators give their thoughts on the challenge

The challenge has brought on similar reactions from UHCL faculty and staff.

Dean of Students David Rachita said the challenge comes as a shock, as he feels the university has lived up to its principle of diversity and inclusion, a feeling shared by Patrick Cardenas, director of Student Involvement and Leadership. 

Cardenas confirmed that BSA contacted him through email about procedures to challenge the mandatory clause. 

“The university has good faith and intentions to live up and go beyond that clause,” Rachita said. “ I would say we are confident that we are as a university and as a whole. If an individual feels that their individual rights and protections are not being adhered to, then there are processes to broach those issues.”

Associate Dean of Students Iliana Melendez feels the challenge is something the members of the association have every right to do and that UHCL needs to be held accountable if it is not living up to the expectations of the students. She said the clause itself is an extensive one, many have fought hard to ensure its existence and it is good the university and the UH System as a whole has it.

“The caveat there is, how are we living up to that as an institution? Which I think every student on our campus has a right to question and to ask and to hold the institution accountable,” Melendez said. “I think not including it or having our student orgs not include it in their governing documents would probably be more harmful than good. I think it gives us a goal. We need to work harder clearly as an institution to make sure we are meeting all those things.”

Melendez said even though a law may be in place, it does not mean its makers are working toward fulfilling it. 

“I think it’s a great and well-written policy and is more progressive than other policies written across the state of Texas,” Melendez said. “Where I think we are failing is the delivery of how we are meeting what is in that clause.” 

Melendez said there are clear issues on the campus and that BSA feeling the university does not live up to the clause is because of their experiences on campus.

Possible steps to be taken

Rachita said the process of challenging the clause would include BSA talking to him, Cardenas and Melendez. Rachita said their roles in the conversation would be listening to BSA’s concerns and helping answer questions they have.

He said they may challenge some of BSA’s thinking to better understand what they believe. Rachita said they would help BSA make their arguments stronger and advise them on the next best steps to take. 

“I think we would be creating an environment that would allow those students to be heard and for us to better understand what they’re concerned about,” he said. 

Patrick said there were communications through email about the process and steps to take on their challenge. The communications also focused on letting them know that while challenging the clause is okay, they still need to acknowledge the clause so they can be registered for the 2020-2021 year. Cardenas said BSA has not registered for the 2020-2021 year yet.

“I very much want them to be registered and the registration is going to require they include that clause for now,” Cardenas said. “They have agreed to add that and their own little additional statement or two on top of that which we agreed could help them carry forward with being registered while still continuing to move forward on challenging the overall goal and scope of that requirement.”

Challenging a non-discrimination clause

Dillon Nash, coordinator of organizations and activities for the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership gave insight into how one would begin challenging a clause.

“The first step to challenge one of the mandated clauses we ask registered student organizations to include in constitutions would be to come to the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership with rationale on why the clause is being challenged and why a change is needed,” Nash said. “From there, it would be communicated to my supervisor and up from there as this is not only a UH-Clear Lake required clause; it is a clause created by the University of Houston system that all campuses in the system adhere to.”

Nash went on to say that the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership allows student organizations to develop constitutions tailored to the organization’s needs. 

“Registered student organizations can update their student organizations at any point in the year in accordance with the verbiage outlined in their constitutions regarding updating the document,” Nash said. “Our office only requires that a constitution exist and that the two required clauses, both the anti-hazing clause and the non-discrimination clause, be included.”

David Rachita said this was not the first time the nondiscrimination clause has been challenged. Rachita said the clause was challenged in the nineties by UHCL alum Josephine Titsworth, who Rachita said was instrumental in redeveloping and recreating the LGBTQ+ organization.

“One of the projects she took on was she was not happy with was the diversity clause,” Rachita said. 

Rachita said when Titsworth was a graduate student at UHCL, she began talking to the dean of students, talking to the vice president of student affairs, going to the Student Government Association and through shared governance to challenge the clause.

“She did not believe the clause went far enough,” Rachita said. “It [the clause] was based on state statutes and she did not think it went far enough, so she took it all the way through the processes, including going to UH systems and lobbying the UH System leadership because she knew that if anything was going to happen here with that kind of policy or clause, it had to start from there as well. Josephine became a Ph.D student at UH so by the time she got to UH she continued this initiative and she is the one that got us the current clause. So what you read now was because of a UH Clear Lake student’s initiative to say ‘This could be better.’”

Rachita said he believes the university is adhering and aspiring to the clause. 

“We are always interested in knowing if anyone feels differently and why so we can figure out [if] there are more things we can be doing better.” Rachita said. 

UHCL’s administrators explore solutions

As BSA’s mission to challenge the nondiscrimination clause begins, Cardenas and the two deans gave their thoughts on how the university can live up to their clause better. Melendez, Rachita and Cardenas all expressed that action is key to living up to the nondiscrimination clause.

Rachita said he thinks one area the university can continue to do better in is its town halls so that more voices can be heard more often. Cardenas said taking action is the right direction but stressed that action does not come immediately.

Cardenas attributed faculty and staff having to work from home to making communication and discussion on these issues harder. He also said it keeps people from being able to see the work being done to fix these issues. 

Cardenas said he prefers to show the final product of actions rather than saying what will be done before it happens. 

“There is definitely a lot at work,” Cardenas said. “It’s just a lot of it is on the drawing board and we know we need to probably execute some of them a lot quicker so the students that are concerned can be given some insight that we are moving forward as an institution.”

Rachita said conversations between students and administrators must continue and encourages students to speak to them. 

“We encourage students to come talk to us so that we can help them formulate their ideas and their thoughts and maybe, more importantly, understand their ideas and their thoughts,” Rachita said. “We need to come to them, and our doors are open for them to talk to us. We may be missing the boat and we don’t know it. You don’t know what you don’t know, and we may need to be told.” 

Melendez said action must be put behind what is being said. She said as the university continues to grow, it must make sure it is living up to one of its pillars of the strategic plan, which is diversity and inclusivity. She encouraged students to hold them accountable when they do not feel positive about UHCL’s actions. Melendez said that if Black students wonder if they matter, the answer is yes.

“Don’t stop asking those questions,” Melendez said. “Keep asking and keep pushing for answers. We may not have them for you right away but we are working to get there.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE: BSA Vice-President Alyssa Shotwell is also a member of The Signal, serving as its online editor.

CORRECTION 9/9/2020: Titles added to BSA leaders and once sentence was moved further up to provide clarity.