Julu Nwaezeapu | Black Penn and the student funding crisis

On Apr. 9, 2022, Black students were egged, denigrated, and called racial slurs at an off-campus Penn party. Though the incident was reported to Penn Police, the aggressors were never discovered. Instead, Penn gave a donation to Penn’s Black Student League (BSL). This funding came just two years after Penn Student Government’s donation of $250,000 to Black student programming: with $150,000 dedicated to UMOJA, a funding board and umbrella organization for constituent Black student groups. 

With the influx of funding following the Black Lives Matter environment — and excess resources from the COVID-19 pandemic — Black student groups had more money than ever, including the means to throw the annual BSL yacht party. Now, four years after a worldwide call for Black agency and humanity, the urgency for racial equality has dissipated, and the fountain of funding has run dry. There is no yacht party this year — there may not be another one for a while. It seems Black students may be forced to wait for our annual celebration of self until the next hate crime graces Penn’s campus.

But the funding crisis striking major Black student organizations begs the question: where is the money going? How is it that Makuu: The Black Cultural Center, La Casa Latina, and the Pan-Asian American Community House — Penn’s core racial affinity groups — still sit in the basement of ARCH, while across the street, parties rage at “Castle” — the colloquial name for the gargantuan Psi Upsilon fraternity house? It makes sense then that fingers point to administration and Penn’s Student Activities Council.

SAC is the primary funding board for student organizations. The nine-membered council takes money from our general fees — one of the fees addended to our biannual tuition for non-academic student support — and determines how much of the total sum to distribute among its 250 student groups. SAC contends that its allocation of funds is a fair process, based completely on their funding guidelines. But some club leaders disagree.

“You need to know someone. You need an ally on board,” said Wharton junior and UMOJA co-chair Shannon Brooks. “When it comes to event funding … it’s the students deciding who gets money and who doesn’t.” UMOJA isn’t technically a SAC-recognized organization, but they are responsible for taking care of the fallout when groups like BSL can’t receive the money necessary to care for Penn’s Black population. 

“I think it becomes a bigger question of like, ‘What events do you deem important and what events are not important?’” Brooks explained. “And people who don’t have the cultural experience just won’t understand a lot of the events being held and their importance. And I think that’s where the disconnect is.” 

Frankly, there is something strange about nine students determining the finances of almost all student organizations. More concerning is the general lack of cultural oversight. There are no measures in place to ensure minority students are properly represented on SAC. Rather, students of color must advocate for one of their peers to run for vacant board positions — a practice UMOJA has employed over the last few years to maintain some semblance of representation.

“I think lacking representation was a big deal for past board members. When they left the board, they made sure to recruit people that were students of color to run for board so that SAC would be more diverse,” College sophomore and SAC board member Faith Dempsey told me. What Dempsey presents here is the kind of invisible labor that often goes unnoticed at predominantly-white institutions. 

But it comes as no surprise that Black students take extra steps to safeguard their presence on adjudicating panels. When you are Black, it is not enough to be a full-time student and chair member of a major board on campus. You must also serve as an advocate for your entire community. You must ensure that future generations have their voices heard. 

SAC must implement diversity-minded precautions going forward. Sub-committees within the board should rule on finances specific to their expertise. Groups like UMOJA and other minority coalitions should advise on funding specific to affinity groups; athletic organizations should counsel on budgeting that affects club sports. At the end of the day, individuals who do not have expertise within a specific field should not decide the finances for it. Though SAC board members are indeed elected by chairs of all SAC-recognized clubs, it is neglectful to allow these nine students alone to determine the fate of our safe spaces on campus.

Even SAC members themselves recognize the glaring diversity issue at hand. Dempsey raises a brow at the organization’s current process of deliberation. “We have to fund groups based on what we think is essential to a group’s mission — which I think is so ignorant. Who am I to decide what’s essential and what’s not essential to your mission? It’s something that SAC truly needs to evaluate.” Only after a thorough uproot of the board’s current structure may Penn’s primary funding board serve as a proper resource for all students on campus. Until then, Black students should anticipate the next racial offense to receive the visibility we so greatly deserve.

JULU NWAEZEAPU is a College junior studying behavioral and computational neuroscience from Chicago. Her email is julunwae@sas.upenn.edu.