“[[W]hen people ask why you are fighting against your own school, when they try to tell you that you are wrong to protest [….], you have to tell them it’s because you love Howard University, because you love Black people… We fought too hard to let our Black institutions end up in the hands of people who oppose us.” – Sonia Sanchez to April Silver
A year ago, I was couch-hopping, trying to find housing after black mold took over my apartment and my car tires were stolen. It felt like everything was against me. Yet, I was thriving professionally, negotiating contracts and honing skills at my big boy agency job. Little did I know, these experiences were preparing me for a much bigger fight: representing myself against Howard University in a legal battle that started six years earlier.
In October 2023, I reached a historic settlement with Howard on a claim I brought to the DC Office of Human Rights in 2018. After a mental health crisis during my freshman year, the university forced me to withdraw instead of offering support, and ultimately refused to honor the withdrawal, failing me for the semester. With no legal representation, I fought and won the case because of a landmark mental health settlement at Yale University which was resolved and made public a month or so before the OHR’s probable cause determination in my case. The settlement allowed me to speak openly about my experience, and since then, I’ve connected with numerous students, alumni, and families who’ve faced similar struggles. It’s clear the challenges persist—Howard’s mental health policies are still inadequate. Most alarming is that there is not an undergraduate leave of absence policy for students who need time away for any reason. There has to be a better way!
What I learned most at Howard is to love
I start here to make one thing clear: I write only from a place of love. Howard stole my heart when I was 17, choosing her over full scholarships from other schools. Howard has a rich history, a legacy of activism, and a spirit of resilience that has also shaped me–which is to say, Howard has a lot to love. But love doesn’t mean silence. Love demands justice. And that’s what I want for Howard: to live up to its fullest potential; especially to the most vulnerable & marginalized.
My introduction to Howard’s love came through organizing with HUResist, a collective of students pushing the university to fulfill its promises to us. During that time, I first read Sonia Sanchez’s words, shared by April Silver: “You have to tell them it is because you love Howard University, because you love Black people.” Those words are etched in my Howard memory and remind me that love and accountability go hand in hand.
Howard now has an opportunity to lead by example. Howard can set a standard for how historically Black institutions handle mental health crises and adopt sweeping changes. But it will take more than this one settlement. We need comprehensive, accessible, and empathetic systems that prioritize student well-being.
As I reflect on World Mental Health Day, I think about how the systems designed to support me failed when I needed them most. Instead of care, I was met with police officers who handcuffed me and was committed to a psych unit that reeked of incarceration. Black people, like Sonya Massey, are too often criminalized for our distress when we should be offered compassion. This punitive response to mental health is a societal issue disproportionately affecting Black communities, but Howard can and must choose a different path.
Over the years, Howard has insisted that the problems I faced were from a bygone era of Howard administration. Evidenced by the fact that many of the officials who were involved with my case are no longer employed by the University, Howard maintains a public commitment to mental health while ignoring. Since going public with this experience, I have been contacted by several current students whose stories eerily mirror mine: withdrawals, police, and runaround when it should be care, compassion, and choice.
It’s time for Howard to embrace its legacy of activism and care by addressing student mental health in meaningful, structural ways.“Still, to this day, I have the deepest love for Howard. I love Howard and will forever love Howard,” said Ross. “That experience made me who I am. This fighter, activist, advocate, it’s literally because of the community I built at Howard. I am the student Howard says it wants and desires — you want students like me, the students who are self-advocates, empowered, and say the quiet things out loud, not taking mistreatment and injustice. These are Howard students.” – Durmerrick