SLU African American Studies: Inside the Fight Against Cuts
By Darius Spearman (africanelements)
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Saint Louis University News: Campus Outcry Over Proposed Review
Tension has gripped Saint Louis University following an administrative announcement that threatens the future of African American Studies. On September 17, university leaders placed the Department of African American Studies and the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies under academic review (unewsonline.com, insightintoacademia.com). The administration marked ten programs in the College of Arts and Sciences for structural evaluation (unewsonline.com). Officials also targeted nearly thirty degree programs across the campus to offset institutional budget shortfalls (insightintoacademia.com).
The campus reaction was immediate. Students, faculty members, and local community organizers joined forces to defend these programs (redlatinastl.com). Two online petitions quickly gathered more than 3,000 signatures from supporters across the region (change.org, ipetitions.com). A packed town hall in Morrissey Hall brought over one hundred participants into the aisles (unewsonline.com). For the broader St. Louis community, this dispute represents an ethical reckoning regarding institutional memory and racial accountability in higher education.
Mobilization and Program Review Scope
Mill Creek Valley History and the Debt of Urban Displacement
The institutional duty to preserve Black studies at Saint Louis University rests on historical foundations. During the early nineteenth century, the Jesuit institution utilized the labor of enslaved individuals to establish its campus operations (slu.edu). That relationship to Black labor shifted into physical land acquisition during the twentieth century (builtstlouis.net). In 1959, the city of St. Louis demolished Mill Creek Valley under the banner of urban renewal (wikipedia.org).
Mill Creek Valley was a vibrant center of Black cultural, economic, and civic life (picturethis-stl.com). The urban clearance project displaced more than 20,000 African American residents and leveled dozens of Black churches and businesses (arcgis.com). Saint Louis University acquired approximately 22 acres of this razed land at subsidized municipal rates to expand its Midtown borders (builtstlouis.net, decodingstl.org). Activists argue this acquisition creates a duty of reparative justice that requires protecting Black scholarship on campus.
From 1970s Pioneers to Ferguson Protests at SLU
African American Studies at the university grew directly out of mid-century civil rights struggles. In 1977, Dr. Barbara Woods established dedicated Black studies courses, directing the initial academic program until 1999 (slu.edu, slu.edu). Dr. Karla Scott followed her tenure, establishing the formal undergraduate major in 2010 (slu.edu, slu.edu). Much like the broader national movement for the creation of Black studies, the program spent decades relying on cross-listed courses and borrowed faculty appointments (slu.edu).
The catalytic event for systemic change occurred in August 2014 after a police officer fatally shot Michael Brown Jr. in nearby Ferguson (capitalbnews.org, unewsonline.com). Weeks later, a police officer killed VonDerrit Myers Jr., the son of a university employee, in the neighboring Shaw district (stlamerican.com, unewsonline.com). Demonstrators marched to the campus clock tower on October 12, beginning a continuous six-day encampment called Occupy SLU (stlamerican.com). The peaceful action forced university leadership to address systemic racial inequality across the institution (slu.edu).
The 2014 Clock Tower Accords and the Promise of Department Status
Rather than clearing the encampment by force, university leaders negotiated a path toward reform (slu.edu). On October 18, 2014, administrators and student leaders signed the Clock Tower Accords (slu.edu, slu.edu). This thirteen-point agreement bound the university to specific institutional changes (slu.edu, slu.edu). Point 1 explicitly mandated an increased budget for African American Studies (slu.edu). The document framed Black intellectual inquiry as an indispensable part of campus life.
The accords reshaped university commitments and spurred curriculum revisions, similar to efforts toward the transformation of university curricula. In 2018, the university recruited Dr. Christopher Tinson to direct the program (jbhe.com, slu.edu). Tinson petitioned the Board of Trustees for structural growth, resulting in full departmental status on May 18, 2021 (slu.edu). This move granted the department hiring autonomy, independent operating resources, and a national profile (blackenterprise.com).
Standalone Black Studies in Jesuit Higher Ed
The Debate Over African American Studies Viability and Core Mission
The administrative review operates under the university’s 2025 Program Viability and Sustainability Policy (unewsonline.com, insightintoacademia.com). The document introduces a guiding metric which declares that “good does not equal essential” in institutional budgeting (unewsonline.com, insightintoacademia.com). Administrators argue that low numbers of declared primary majors cannot justify separate departmental overhead in a challenging financial climate (unewsonline.com). They point to shifting enrollment and rising operating costs as reasons for consolidation (insightintoacademia.com).
Faculty members reject this accounting model. They note that the department educates hundreds of non-major undergraduates every year through general core courses (unewsonline.com). Departmental coursework addresses foundational queries explored across the discipline of Black studies. Critics argue that assessing departments through corporate margins abandons the Jesuit principle of cura personalis, or care for the whole person (unewsonline.com). They maintain that vital intellectual spaces cannot be measured by major tallies alone.
National Retrenchment and the Future of SLU Academic Program Cuts
The dispute at Saint Louis University mirrors a broader trend across higher education. Across the United States, academic institutions have eliminated or consolidated ethnic studies departments under fiscal and political pressures (insightintoacademia.com). When public universities face state legislative challenges, private institutions frequently carry out their own cutbacks through financial reviews (insightintoacademia.com). This pattern recalls the ways earlier social advances eroded after the historical failures of Reconstruction, leaving vital community initiatives unprotected.
Administrative leaders will render their final determination regarding program closures or mergers in December (unewsonline.com, insightintoacademia.com). Students, alumni, and local residents continue organizing rallies and teach-ins to protect the department’s full independence (redlatinastl.com, unewsonline.com). For the campus community, preserving African American Studies honors the legacy of Mill Creek Valley and the pledges made beneath the clock tower (redlatinastl.com, slu.edu). The coming decision tests whether institutional commitments endure when financial conditions tighten.
AAS Academic Faculty Resources
About the Author
Darius Spearman is a professor of Black Studies at San Diego City College, where he has been teaching for over 20 years. He is the founder of African Elements, a media platform dedicated to providing educational resources on the history and culture of the African diaspora. Through his work, Spearman aims to empower and educate by bringing historical context to contemporary issues affecting the Black community.
