UPDATE:
School Closure is Discontinued – Read letter from Southern University’s Provost, Dr. Mwalumu Shujaa.
Reconsideration of School of Architecture Closure
From: Dr. Sudhir K. Trivedi, President of the Faculty Senate
To: atim oton <atim@blackdesignnews.com>
Architecture is off the list of programs targeted for termination. TRIVEDI
Dear Colleagues and Followers of Black Design News Network/BDNN:
Disaster in the Diaspora does not just apply to New Orleans Katrina and post-earthquake Haiti, anymore. Soon and too very soon the need to focus on the man-made disaster at the Southern University’s School of Architecture, will create an endless series of ‘victims and survivors’ of underserved communities, once again. At what point does a Black university decide that its school of architecture is ‘obsolete, unneeded, unwanted, unproductive, invisible’? And through whose beholding eyes does this particular brand of ‘ugliness’ begin to be seen as truth? Whose responsibility it is to insure that our ‘want-to-be’ diverse nation continues to produce architects, planners and developers of color for our underserved communities and for the world? At what point does the AIA, NOMA, ACSA , NCARB place at the top of their list, the importance of supporting and sustaining schools of architecture for minority communities? Preventing the closure of Southern’s School of Architecuture may be the most important diversity effort yet for the above-named institutuions, combined !
Perhaps we should rehash the dialogue by taking brief tab of the extent of minority representation within the majority schools; or within the HBCU’s; or within the profession; or within American cities in general; or within cities with highly diverse populations, in particular. When is the last time the profession did a complete assessment of the health of the institutions that are largely producing black architects for the nation? We recently learned that the disparities experienced by black architects are many. By last count we identified approximately 200+ black women as licensed architects in the nation. Many are underpaid and invisible.Then we have the numbers of African American men and women with degrees in architecture– who make considerable contributions to the field in ‘non-traditional’ ways, but who seldom make the ‘field count’. So, how might we measure our contribution as a tribe to this noble profession? And how might these contributions be quantified-so as to actually give those contributions (not just a listing) but also a value? What have we accomplished and what will occur if we stop those contributions in the building and re-building of America???
As a profession, we have only recently attempted to name and account for the numbers of African American academics in schools of architecture cross-country. Some are tenured; many are not. Some do research; but few are published. Who will teach and make stick the lessons of diversity in any school of architecture if, in the broad brush, we are not far-sighted enough to secure tenure for ourselves and for those very ’founding schools’ that early insisted that we as black folk could read, think, draw, vision, plan, design, construct and even finance the building of homes, gardens, buildings, monuments , universities and nations?
The long gone bodies of Booker T. Washington and DuBose would surely wince at our troubles, as they were much closer to the bane of slavery that once was so very obviously an ‘obstacle’ to our success.We have lost count and we have lost sight of the relevance of what it means to build civilizations that truly represent the diversity that we so often insist that we need. Where are the alumni in this cause? How many graduates of Southern can be named and accounted for? How many are employed? How many are unemployed?
Just as the fire and fervor once inherent in the American civil rights movement has dissipated …the same could be said about similar imperatives at Southern and at many of our schools…We, as a people, never did stop to prepare for the long-range plan–for the institution-build—for the real nation-build. We assumed that the need to preserve our truth was ‘self-evident’. While most majority institutions continue to notarize their 25 year plans at board meetings annually, we as a people and as a profession did not assemble our thinkers as well as our doers on a regular basis to talk about the long-term keeping of our private homesteads, private practices or public institutions. Whatever shall we do to keep our boats from sinking ? Too soon, the greatest numbers of us (ever), will turn on the eve of our 50th anniversary in the profession only to look back at those wind-blown villages of dust that we created–much like the villages of Haiti that crumbled under the might of the natural disaster of a 7.0 quake— Our villages have often been well-populated, but too seldom well-reinforced.
Many will say, “If only we had known….”.
Harriet Tubman was once asked why she did not free more slaves . And her response? ”Had they only known they were slaves, I could have saved more.”
We have seen many HBCU architecture schools tremble at the thought of accreditation-without the resources needed to consistently feed the minds of the young or free the lowly paid instructors from subsistence.
We have seen many HBCU architecture schools fold into schools of engineering-where corporate sponsors financially saluted and employed black engineers-digital, electrical, mechanical and chemical. And because they kept the research going; they kept their coffers filled. Seldom do these same corporations support schools of architecture for people of color . So where are our public/private partnerships in this instance?
Indeed we have created a black professional class and have gone far to create many personal friendships in very high places within many corporations and places of power - but seldom have those personal relationships translated into corporate or government partnerships that will SUSTAIN THOSE INSTITUTIONS that we still hold so dear. Where are the endowed chairs? And where are the endoments? Surely, we must begin to design better mousetraps.
In addition to our slowly fading architecture schools, we also face another interesting dilemma-namely the fading of those multi-generational minority firms -where many ( father and sons; father and daughters; or brother and brothers ) fought hard to create competitive architecture firms not so very long ago–but are now faced, (but one generation later) with fading founders. Almost too late, once again, we raise questions nationwide as to who will be next heir to those swiftly disappearing but hard-earned thrones? Who will inherit those business relationships, those rolodex, those lessons, those wisdoms, those enterprises , those self-made institutions….what will become of the the African American architect and the African-American owned architecture firm?
We all are to blame for such short term-thinking.(We have forgotten that we are still ’enslaved’-by our passion for the profession with no proper bones/infrastructure in place.) While it is true that architecture, more than most professions-really insists upon the support of grand worthy patrons to guarantee success–seldom do we ever secure patrons for ourselves, our businesses, our schools or for the next generation of intellectuals and craftsmen so needed to build the first fully diverse American civilization–yet to come.
(Too soon in June we crooned.)
Perhaps when we collect at the next NOMA conference we can set up one workshop that includes all past presidents of NOMA and all generations who come to NOMA to talk about what we intend to leave behind as our long range and comprehensive 25 year plan–especially now that glaring prejudice is not overt. Until we stop to talk about structural inequity and the building of lasting institutions…our numbers will indeed continue to dwindle and we shall, in a few short generations, just poof and disappear–with very few physical monuments, long-lasting enough to be left behind. (Not so many pyramids, since the Egyptians, you dig?)
So while in Boston might we attempt to come to terms with the real business confronting our members, our communities, our firms, our careers, our schools and our institutions? Does this nation need our service-or not? What might Obama say about this dilemna-while serving as the first Black President of this nationa and while living in a White House built by us?
In the meantime ….however….just what shall we do between now and Friday to attempt to save Southern? Should the Board of Directors for NOMA dispatch representatives to meet with the President of Southern? YES. Should the letter that we send by Friday to Southern’s President request a meeting with the NOMA Board of Directors to discuss the glaring imperatives of saving black schools that ‘build’? YES. Should we send to Southern a list of names of black graduates of schools of architecture nationwide who will join in ‘that meeting’ to have ‘that discussion’, at a time and place certain? YES. Shall we ask the President of Southern for a postponement of that decision until they meet with the Presidents of NOMA, ACSA and AIA? YES. Might that letter with a secured, scheduled meeting stop the clock short term? COULD BE.
BUT DO NOT FORGET THAT, the university is a corporation with corporate concerns. How do we save Southern/Architecture from a corporate point of view? What are the corporate concerns? What underlies the fiscal uncertainty that befalls the school of architecture, there? Why can it no longer be sustained? Where is the desk audit? What are the options? When might the face-to -face meeting between the FOUR Presidents occur? Which of our professional institutions is willing and able to make commitments to insure a plan of institutional stability at Southern? And what other schools of color are about to fall into that same abyss? It is time for true accounting in this the year the national census.
Black Design News Network is eager to ask: ”What say we…the best and brightest thinkers amongst us? And what ever–really–shall we do? ”
Please give us your thoughts via atim@blackdesignnews.com . Then go to ww.blackdesignnews.com
to participate in the exchange.
Renee Kemp-Rotan, NOMA
Co-Founder BDNN
Atim Annette Oton,NOMA
Co-Founder BDNN
Black Design News Network (BDNN) is a news bureau, an online publication, digital library and 'workspace' hub for designers. African Diaspora, BDNN focuses on creating awareness of black design, distributing news and information about Architecture, Interior Design, Product Industrial Design, Fashion/Textile Design, Communication and Graphic Design. BDNN is the 411 of the Black Design Diaspora. 
