Happy Science Building Takeover Day!

Welcome to the 54th year!

Happy Belmont Abbey Science Building Takeover Day!

We have hope in a local filmmaker’s desire to make a YouTube series to look at the 1969 protest. The announcement came days before the college announced its multimillion-dollar campaign to invigorate the college and the monastery, among other things.

No real knock at that. College students buy into the business of getting the pops and whistles of college life in addition to quality education with professors that want to teach. That stuff should never change, and that’s why the college has an excellent reputation for its students.

Celebrating the 1969 protest

Anyway, back to the YouTube series. Whenever the series comes out, we’ll have our popcorn ready.

However, we’re not thrilled with the college’s response to the news article/series. 

“The incident that occurred on our campus in 1969 happened more than 50 years ago. While we understand even today there is some interest in details regarding the incident there is no one currently at the college who has knowledge of specific details. Furthermore, pursuant to federal privacy laws, we cannot comment on anything in a current or previous student’s official records.”

It reeks of a slap in the face of the current black students. Why is Belmont Abbey College offering a history degree? No one on campus was around at America’s founding. No one was around when Jesus walked the Earth. But those subjects are taught at the school.

Just because you weren’t there to witness it doesn’t mean that it’s not important.

Why is BAC's Black History important?

Despite attempts to celebrate BHM, few attempts to celebrate show how little the Abbey has grown in the 54 years since the protest. Why does it matter?

Here’s a quick breakdown:

• According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, about 5.76 percent of Belmont Abbey’s full-time non-instructional college staff is Black or African-American, according to the 2021-2022 school year. 

• According to the Abbey’s own 2021 report, there are three full-time black professors out of the 84 full-time instructional staff. That’s 4.76 percent. 

• Finally, there were 135 Black undergrad students out of 1,363 students in 2021 (9.90 percent).  

Can’t celebrate Black History Month outside a speech or two for those folks? Can’t you recognize black events, history, professors, and famous alums every year? 

Maybe the school has a history major that can look into this event? 

It’s one thing to allow students to come back to visit. It’s another to revisit the event and try to look at it with a different mindset. Why even have a history major? Why teach classes about local history at all?

The truth is, the college thinks they’re above this protest. They don’t have to explain themselves. Unfortunately, denying the past and ignoring it doesn’t make it go away. The more you hide behind this history, the more out of touch you become with issues facing those that are not like you. 

You know who did get it right? Voorhees University in Denmark, S.C. The Abbey and Voorhees College shared this week back in 1969. That same week, students took over two school buildings with multiple guns (yes, the Abbey students had a rumored gun in their incident). In that case, the University arrested students. There were militarized vehicles coming onto campus.  

What’s different is that in 2019 is that Voorhees University reconciled with its students. They even invited them back to talk about the event.

The reconciliation made us think of other high-profile reconciliations, especially recent ones: the 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia with the city reconciling with the families in 2020, the Pope apologizing to Canadian indigenous peoples last year, etc.

Now, back to Belmont Abbey’s response.

Regarding the core issue of race surrounding the 1969 incident, here at the Abbey, we continue our mission of educating and forming men and women of character and virtue. We aim to form graduates who can be leaders in their communities and show respect for the God-given dignity of each person. The college is committed to restoring the public square by creating vibrant communities where all people can flourish in mutual respect and justice.”

We do not doubt that Belmont Abbey College is doing the “virtue and character” teaching. But it took a while to get there, as did most colleges and universities nationwide.

So, why can’t we celebrate or learn about that specifically?