Students at Loyola University are advocating for the retention of the school’s lone Black professor in the English department.
Campus publication The Loyola Maroon reported that Scott Heath, an African-American studies professor, recently sent his students a letter informing them that the New Orleans university declined to renew his contract for the fall semester for reasons the department did not specify.
Many of Heath’s students joined forces with Loyola-based chapters of the Young Democratic Socialists and the NAACP to push for the professor’s reinstatement.
Together, they drafted an open letter and produced a social media-shared petition to support Heath’s reinstatement. Over 600 people have signed the petition, including residents of the greater New Orleans area and students.
“How are we, as a Jesuit institution, going to claim that we fight for the poor and oppressed,” freshman Olivia Zachary wondered, according to The Maroon, “when we are outlawing and silencing Black educators?”
Organizers shared the petition with Loyola’s English department and higher management. Carson Cruse, president of the Loyola branch of the Young Democratic Socialists, said the university did not respond, which prompted students to stage the rally, which was held Wednesday.
The Loyola branch of the NAACP convened a listening session with Kedrick Perry, the vice president of equity and inclusion, academic affairs personnel and other campus leaders to express their concerns about Heath’s dismissal.
However, organizers lamented the absence of any English department faculty who could have listened to their issues.
Akilah Toney, a junior psychology major and secretary of Loyola’s NAACP branch, said she believes it is unfair that Black students must struggle for the institution to prioritize their academic interests. She noted she had never felt more at home and informed in a classroom than in Heath’s class.
“If the university can use [Black students] for their pictures, to plan their events, to increase their diversity,” Toney said, “then we deserve an education where Black students can feel welcome.”
Senior Cynthia Russell claimed the university’s actions are part of a trend that rewards and supports professors who lack enthusiasm and care only about themselves while punishing those who are the opposite.
“Loyola uses their Black, Indigenous and Latino students as trophies,” she said, accusing the university of getting rid of professors “who actually care and try to push us forward.”
Following the protest, the Rev. Justin Daffron, Loyola’s interim president, met with the student activists. Freshman history major Olyvya Boatright warned that organizers wanted a response or they’d “raise some more hell.”
“Our education is not negotiable,” Toney said, The Maroon reported. “We won’t take no for an answer because we need an African-American studies department in a majority Black city.”
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