In one of six initiatives addressing anti-Blackness on campus, President Carol Folt announced the removal of Rufus Von KleinSmid’s name and bust from The Von KleinSmid Center. VKC will temporarily be named The Center for International and Public Affairs while the university begins “an inclusive process to rename the building.”
According to the Undergraduate Student Government, alumni Preston Fregia began a petition to rename VKC when he was a USG Senator in 2018. He told Annenberg Media that he never thought it would be implemented.
Fregia said two senate advisors, Manda Bwerevu and Michaela Murphy, helped him research and draft the resolution.
“Joy is truly the only word I can use that feels full enough,” Murphy said. “This is something that for decades, for generations, people have been trying to change on this campus. I think we're all kind of in shock right now to finally see it happen.”
She said she was disheartened after an experience with former Vice President of Student Affairs Ainsley Carry.
“He asked us, ‘Is this really such a big problem? Because I can see the steps of VKC from my office through my window and I’ve never seen a student sitting on those steps crying because they had to take a class in this building.’ For me in that moment, I thought that this was never going to happen.”
After this story was published, Carry flatly denied Murphy’s comment. “The statement attributed to me by Michaela Murphy is false. I never said anything close to this. I met with [Murphy and Fregia] and we left with a plan to propose a task force to the provost to address their concerns. I was and remain supportive of revisiting all nomenclature that is offensive on campus. Prior to my departure from USC, I chaired the provost task force on this topic. I remain a champion of the students’ concerns and this statement is untrue and offensive,” he said in an email Sunday morning.
Murphy said it was “a very difficult road” to get the building officially renamed.
“I know of other people trying to get the name of VKC changed, to different kinds of progressive movements on this campus, who have received threatening calls, threatening emails against themselves and members of their family, simply because they're willing to speak out on issues like this,” Murphy said.
Other measures Folt announced include a Community Advisory Board for the Department of Public Safety, a new administrative position to address diversity, equity and inclusion, expanded support for underserved students on campus and mandatory unconscious bias training.
Rising senior Jephtha Prempeh presented Folt with a list of demands Tuesday, many of which appeared in her community-wide email on Thursday.
“In our meeting, I learned that Dr. Folt had been working on VKC, but I think that this meeting really pushed that to its limit and showed the urgency with which the student body needs that to be taken care of,” Prempeh, who is majoring in NGOs and Social Change, told Annenberg Media.
Black Student Assembly Executive Director Jaya Hinton has been working with administrators to finalize the bias trainings. The first training sessions for the Department of Public Safety, students, and faculty are expected to take place in late July.
Hinton said the executive board for BSA has been working on several projects, including a fundraiser and a collaboration with the USC Bookstore.
In a letter addressed to students, Vice President Winston Crisp announced the university would be “reimagining the space in the current Student Union to provide community lounges, meeting rooms, and support services for student communities.”
Folt confirmed this in her letter to the community.
Hinton said the expansion of student spaces is important, but not as much as funding. She said as a former employee of the Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs, the cultural center was underfunded.
“They have to partner with a lot of other organizations to have any or all of their events,” she said. “It would be nice for the CBCSA to help work with BSA, even just getting the fundraiser up, but they don't even have enough money to keep student workers on during the summer.” While BSA is funded by USG, the CBCSA is funded by Student Affairs.
The Native American Student Assembly officially became recognized as a student organization in April, and currently has its cultural space in the USC Religious Center. NASA Director Moakeah Rivera said the university didn’t acknowledge or realize how this placement affected the members.
“We oftentimes are categorized as like a religious organization when we're far from it,” she said. “Historically speaking, Native Americans have not had the greatest relations, obviously, because we were colonized through Christianity. We really want to get out of the religious center ... I really do hope that Carol will hold her promise.”
Folt also announced a new program, First Generation Plus, aimed at providing resources to first-generation students, spring admits, transfer students and DACA recipients.
Rising senior Connie Chen, who transferred to USC as a first-generation student, said it was difficult to navigate USC and that she is glad she is seeing change.
“I'm just really glad that she's creating a space for not only first-gen students but also for people of different colors and also for transfers and spring admits,” Chen said. “I hope that somehow they're able to create a space where students not only have a place to physically go, but people feel like they have a network of people that they can rely on.”
Chen is a leader in USC’s First Generation Student Leadership Program, which launched this year. She says students can schedule an appointment with a leader to ask for advice about anything, including academic courses or how they’re feeling.
“I think for me, it's just really important to somehow be able to mentally foster these kids, because college is a lot and there's a lot of stresses that go into being a first-gen student,” she said.
Prempeh said they’re hopeful about the future of USC.
“I'm working on developing some sort of document that can be signed, or some sort of official capacity with Dr. Folt’s recognition of the necessary steps forward, so that we can continue to move forward as a community on the same page and knowing what we can expect of our leadership,” they said.
Prempeh said they’ve been in conversation with Folt about several additional student concerns, including student representation on the Board of Trustees and representation of the Palestinian flag at The Center for International and Public Affairs.
“I’ve been really hopeful because it feels like so many conversations that I and others have been trying to have are finally being taken seriously.”
Updated at 4:48 p.m. Sunday with comment from Ainsley Carry.