GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A group of Grand Valley State University students are organizing for change.
"You came, you pulled us out, you sold us a dream, we got here, and we did not have all of the tools to be successful," said a student Tuesday night.
Antonio Green is one of many students who helped put on a town hall Tuesday night on "retention, representation, and racism," all attributes they claim Black and minority students have experienced while coming to GVSU.
"There's a big disconnect between the senior leaders and the Black students on this campus, the students of color on this campus, and that's prevalent today."
Some of the topics addressed at the town hall include minority staff and faculty representation, Black student retention and being able to house students with a growing campus population.
"Especially in classrooms where you don't see many Black professors, faculty members, it's hard especially you can't get that connection from just like from other people," said Kaiya Smith, another student organizer.
A GVSU enrollment report shows 1,391 African American or Black students enrolled in Fall of 2023 making up around 6% of the student population.
"Being in classrooms in settings where you are going only Black student or to other Blacks, you know, Black students, you don't really get to talk too much," said Smith. "It's like, it feels uncomfortable."
Black and African American students also had the lowest retention rate of any other ethnicity at Grand Valley.
That number measures returning undergraduate students year-to-year. In 2022 it was 53.4%,` a number students want to see the university try do better at.
University President Philomena Mantella was in attendance and responded to the crowd of hundreds.
"We need to be sure every student that comes has the opportunity to graduate, we need to increase our retention," said Mantella. "We need to be more responsive. We need to provide more support."
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