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Jilly_in_VA

(11,120 posts)
Mon Oct 25, 2021, 10:44 AM Oct 2021

Rats, mold, roaches: Howard students stage sit-in over housing conditions

Mold. Rats. Cockroaches. Mushrooms growing under the sink. For undergraduate students attending Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington, these and other conditions have prompted students to protest, staging a sit-in and sleeping at the university’s main student center for the past two weeks.

Organizing on social media apps like Instagram and TikTok under the #Blackburntakeover, as many as 150 students have been staging a sit-in at Howard’s Blackburn University Center, described as the “social hub of the university” by Howard.

Since 12 October they have protested what they describe as deplorable housing conditions, including mold on expired air filters, rat and cockroach infestations, and mushrooms blooming on dorm room ceilings and under sinks, despite on-campus housing costing upwards of $12,000 a year.

Students, chronicling the sit-in with the Instagram account “The Live Movement”, are also sleeping at the center in protest and say they will not leave until their demands are met.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/25/howard-university-students-protest-housing-conditions
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