‘This place is a hell hole for a broke, black woman like me’

Sophomore Ma’at Sargeant came back from class on the afternoon of May 1, 2017, ready to destress from her morning of classes with a nap. The semester was winding down and Sargeant was one of the many students preparing for finals. It was a normal day until she learned that bananas were strung through nooses and hung on trees across the American University campus.

This attack gained national media attention which led to an FBI investigation that is still ongoing.

Since 2014, there has been a total of 21 hate-related attacks on campus.

“I knew that [the black community] was just a drop of the population at American, but never expected this to be an issue,” said Sargeant. Sargeant, a black woman, along with several of her peers considered leaving the university because of its unsafe and consistently hostile environment for students of color.

Despite consistent cases of racially motivated incidents at the university, students said they cannot leave because they are financially tied to the university.

Vice President of Campus Life and Inclusive Excellence, Dr. Fanta Aw worked in the office of Campus Life during the May 1 hate crime. In talking to students, Aw said they felt under attack and were traumatized by the events.

“The racial incident that happened at AU, that definitely had a significant impact on particularly African American students,” said Aw.

Sargeant explained the decline in her mental health over the years which she said was a direct result of the attacks at American University.

“It started with paranoia. I became paranoid about the people I was around. Then, it became anger and frustration,” Sargeant said. “I didn’t get to process the crimes because I had to act on it so quickly.”

Despite the emotional and psychological effects these events had on AU students, Aw said they still stayed at the university.

“The retention rate of black students from [the class of 2020] were quite strong, the incident really left a poor taste in peoples mouths and negative perception of the institution, but it did not necessarily lead to students transferring out,” Aw said.

She said that students were compelled to stay because AU was offering them something other institutions would not be able to.

“Financial aid became a significant motivator for keeping people even when they weren’t happy,” Aw said. “I think people understood if they transferred they wouldn’t get that same level of aid.”

The retention rate data shows that the percentage of African American students stayed between 5 and 7 percent of the total population. Sargeant took up the role of a student activist after conservative political commentator Milo Yiannopoulous came to the university. She and her peers demanded change from within the university to prevent hate speech on campus. She explained that she did not have any prior experience with activism before coming to American University.

“I didn’t come here to be an activist, it just played out that way. I was just a pissed off student who was tired of the environment I was forced to be in,” Sargeant said.

However, even while pushing to make the campus a better place, Sargeant and other students considered leaving the university to go elsewhere.

“This place is a hell hole for a broke, black woman like me,” Sargeant said. “I would have transferred by now if I was not receiving money from American.”

Shirleyne McDonald, associate director of financial aid, observed students’ struggles to with stay at American.

McDonald explained that many of her students came to her with questions about transferring as well as advice and support surrounding the hate crimes that occurred over the years.

“Students felt isolated and there was a push to get help and experience the community feeling again,” McDonald said.

The cost of attendance for a private university is based on several different aspects which are government funding, the financial need of the student, family contribution, tuition, mandatory fees, housing, meals, transportation, books and incidentals or personal costs, McDonald explained.

Over the past five years, American University has worked to ensure that of the students who show financial need, all of them receive some form of a financial aid package, McDonald said. The university awarded $90 million in scholarships during that time.

The total cost to attend American was just over $65,000 for the 2018-2019 academic year, the highest tuition and total cost of attendance have ever been.

Many students battle between choosing personal or financial safety and security on campus because of the amount of money they receive from the school.

“I feel like I had a lot of opportunity because of financial aid,” Lovesha Woods, a third-year political science student said.

Still, Woods described her experience at American as one that has a great impact on her mental health. However, paying for her education outweighed her how she felts after the various attacks on campus.

“If I transferred I wouldn’t have the money to pay for it. I’m low income and I live across the country, so that’s how that played out,” Woods said.

Junior, Julian Baro, who identifies as Hispanic also considered transferring because of the treatment he saw towards African American students on campus, but financial reasons kept him at American.

“If I was paying full pocket for this education and for this institution’s blatant racism, then yes, I would be at another school absolutely,” said Baro. “Most of it doesn’t come out of my pocket and thankfully I have other people paying for it because I can’t afford to.”

Students outweighed feelings of negativity because of substantial financial aid packages however, it’s doesn’t solve the fundamental issues American still grapples with.

“They know they don’t have to fix anything, they know we are pissed, they know we are miserable here, but they don’t care because they know we don’t have options,” said Sargeant. “They are more concerned with placating their students who have options to leave.”