From the steps of the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences (CPNAHS), to the footsteps of Howard Hall, nursing students protested for the better education they feel they have been deprived of for years.
Over 50 students gathered on the steps of the nursing school, holding up signs and chanting slogans representing the change they wanted to see in their educational curriculum.
“All we want is an education,” the students chanted, led by student David Buckley.
Buckley, a senior nursing major, said they were just looking for change in the form of improved teaching methods, fair testing standards and overall organization of the school’s priorities.
This outcry is not the first of its kind. In 2007, The Hilltop reported that nursing students walked out of examinations, which threatened accreditation, in protest of the shoddy education they believed they were receiving.
Students are now protesting again, hoping to see real results.
One of the protest signs being held up by the disgruntled students read, “Pass or fail, you still get paid!”
According to CPNAHS Dean Beatrice Adderley-Kelly, the college’s goal is to make sure students become “successful, professional nurses.”
However, many of the students claimed they were not being educated to hone their potentials as nurses, but instead, strung along from test to test. This lack of education was revealed when half of the students scored 70 percent or below on their last exams.
“Serve your students, not just numbers,” the students chanted.
According to senior nursing student Nazziwa Lubimbi, the protest was a result of a failed attempt to communicate student concerns with the dean.
“We did have a meeting with the dean,” she said. “We were told students do not make decisions and regulations, faculty does. We have no control over our education.”
Lubimbi said the lack of control was made obvious to all when the dean walked past the protesting students without a second glance.
“I believe I have been responsive to student’s needs,” Adderley-Kelly said. “I have been working with the administration in the Division of Nursing to address their issues and concerns.”
She said the process to change may take longer than students would like, but the administration will continue to work to resolve issues because they do take student concerns seriously.
“Student leaders have been meeting with the faculty for months without a response,” said
Corey Briscoe, Howard University Student Association (HUSA) General Assembly vice chairman. “This is the end result.”
When faculty and staff continued to walk past the students expressing no concern for their protests, the students took their protest up the hill to Howard Hall.
“I want to know at what point our feelings will become faculty concerns,” said Patricia Perrin, a senior nursing major.
She joined her fellow senior class as they walked up Sixth Street shouting, “What do we want? Education!”
Aastasshia Lacy, a senior nursing major, said, “We are not going to be silent anymore.”
The protestors stopped on the bricks of Founders’ Walk before Howard Hall, where they met up with the Howard University president Sidney Ribeau.
Coming out of the building to the sound of the protest, Ribeau said, “Clearly you are having issues; what is the problem?”
Senior class treasurer, Berlinda Blanc, stepped out and presented letters and a list of concerns and demands to Ribeau.
“We have been dealing with issues for several graduating classes, and it has been allowed to pass,” Blanc said.
By the end of the demonstration, the protesting students were standing before Ribeau, Provost and Chief Academic Chair Alvin Thornton, Ph.D., HUSA Vice President Kellen Moore and Undergraduate Trustee Victoria Kirby.
Ribeau promised the students he will address their concerns, and he promised to do it soon.
The students walked back down the hill to the nursing school cheering for their promised victory. Back at the school, the students were told the dean would like to speak with them.
Only three of the protestors agreed to speak with the dean while the others said they had tried before and were finished trying.
“We have been through that already,” said Rashaunna Redd, a senior nursing major. “We are not going to do it anymore. We are done.”
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