New inclusion investments launch new academic year

Representatives at the event included Student Government President April Gable and Vice President Taylor Allgood; Faculty Senate Chair Greg Loving; and Staff Senate Chair Heidi Pettyjohn.

Special guests included members of UC’s Board of Trustees and community partners and leaders as well as UC students, faculty and staff.

Speakers included the president; Provost Valerio Ferme; Bleuzette Marshall, vice president for Equity, Inclusion and Community Impact; Debra Merchant, vice president for Student Affairs; and College of Law Dean Verna Williams. Serving as emcee was Chris Lewis, M.D., vice provost for academic affairs and professor of family and community medicine.

The celebration focused on:

Thanks to a generous donor and university investment, UC will establish the new Marian Spencer Scholars Program to provide awards to high-achieving students of promise from the 14 Cincinnati Public School high schools.

The Marian Spencer Scholars Program will cover students’ undergraduate financial need, and the program will also include mentoring and career coaching, an international service-abroad trip; participating on a service project to benefit Cincinnati Public Schools; and more. The students will form a living-learning community, housed together in Marian Spencer Hall.

As such, the Spencer Scholars will be a living embodiment of Spencer’s leadership and legacy. Spencer was instrumental in desegregating Cincinnati’s Coney Island as well as the Cincinnati Public Schools. She went on to become the first African American woman elected to Cincinnati City Council in 1983.

As an African American student in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Marian Spencer wasn't permitted to live in a dorm on the University of Cincinnati campus. That makes an honor she later received all the more fitting. In 2018, a new high-rise residence hall opened on Campus Green, christened Marian Spencer Hall to honor her activism and her many contributions to the university. A former Board member at UC, she later donated 80 years of Cincinnati civil rights history to the university in forms as diverse as music and official memoranda to comprise the “Marian and Donald Spencer Collection.”

Stated President Pinto, “The Spencer Scholarship builds a runway for underrepresented students at UC who will have an incredible opportunity to launch their academic and professional careers from our campus.”

Last year, the university set an all-time record for the most diverse student body in its history. This fall, UC broke that record.

As part of this growth trend, a new center in the heart of campus in the Joseph A. Steger Student Life Building will provide enhanced space and offerings for identity-based groups. (Note that the African American Cultural and Resources Center, which celebrates its 30^th anniversary this month, will remain in its current location and will undergo façade improvements and some interior upgrades.)

According to Vice President Debra Merchant, “When discussing the physical location of the Center, students highly favored a location in the center of campus that is accessible to all. Students mentioned the need for larger spaces to accommodate our growing population of students. In a recent round of focus groups, students were able to inform the vision...for the Center for Identity and Inclusion."

Among those students were Camryn Morrow, co-chair of the Equity and Inclusion Committee in Undergraduate Student Government, and External Holdover Senator for Undergraduate Student Government Neha Chawla.

Said Morrow, "I am very honored to have the opportunity to be here today to stand witness to what can happen through continued collective action. Advocacy work thrives on community, and we stand in solidarity with our student peers, like the Black Round Table and United Asian Advocates. They, like us, share common goals to serve students and advance opportunities for students of color to thrive."

Chawla remarked, "I have found so much joy in these [identity-based] spaces and understand the value of representation and community. ...President Pinto prioritized student concerns and invited us into conversations where our experiences and stories were embraced and heard. We have been so fortunate to have had the support of students, staff, faculty and administration alike and hope to continue these partnerships as we uphold our values of diversity, equity and inclusion."

More information on the new space is expected by the close of this academic year.

In addition to building a runway to our future, the  day was also about honoring our past.

As such, a new installation that honors and acknowledges the university’s earliest African American alumni are part of an ongoing commitment to honor, recall and share more-complete histories of the university. The new installation, with inscriptions written by recently retired university archivist Kevin Grace, sits north of University Pavilion and east of McMicken Hall.

It honors and highlights:

Henry Malachi Griffin was the first African American to earn an undergraduate degree at UC. Born in 1858 in a New Jersey farming family, he enrolled at the University of Cincinnati in 1882 and at his graduation in 1886, was elected as class orator.

Griffin taught first in Indiana and then in Missouri before moving to New York City in 1898 to attend medical school. He earned his medical degree in 1904 and practiced in Harlem for many years as well as heading the National Medical Association, presenting papers on medical topics.

Read more of his story and life by author and historian Greg Hand, former UC associate vice president.  

Acknowledging overlooked histories always owes so much to so many. These include UC’s long-time conscience on matters of inclusion, Eric Abercrumbie, retired special assistant to the president and executive director of diversity and community relations in the university’s Division of Student Affairs. Lovingly referred to as “Doc” by generations of students and colleagues, Abercrumbie was perhaps the first to systematically chronicle the achievements and firsts of campus’ African American trailblazers in his ‘UC Black Timeline.’