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Students Occupying The Administration Building Are No Longer Calling For The Resignation of President Frederick And The Board of Trustees

Meanwhile Tyrone Hankerson Plans To Sue Howard

The Howard University Administration Building, renamed by student protesters as the Kwame Ture Student Center has been the scene of a sit-in. Photo by Mark Beckford

Student activist group, HU Resist is no longer calling for the resignation of President Frederick and the Board of Trustees. In a statement to Twitter, the group said that “we are recentering our vision of student power to be a collective effort including the board of trustees.”

The statement from #HUResist saying they were no longer calling for the resignation of the President and Board of Trustees. SourceL Twitter.

The resignation of President Frederick and the Board of Trustees were among nine demands HU Resist were calling to be met in their #StudentPowerHU 8-day occupation of the Administration building that started March 29.

On March 25, HU Resist took to Twitter to release these demands that primarily revolve around housing, tuition, sexual assault and other issues the group said need to be addressed immediately.

The eight day Administration building sit-in followed the announcement of accusations of financial aid embezzlement with the University were revealed in an Medium post (since been deleted) by the author of the name of “Veritas 1867” on the evening of March 27. The following day on March 28, the revelations were confirmed by President Wayne Frederick through a statement to the University of some of the claims and his prior knowledge of the embezzlement.  Amid the allegations of financial aid embezzlement, Howard University student and former financial aid employee, Tyrone Hankerson was among one of the accused in the Medium Post for embezzling $429,000.

The student is now suing Howard University for $10 million dollars for leaking his financial aid records, according to his lawyer James Walker. The news was announced via Twitter. The post stated by Walker that the complaint will “most likely” be filed Friday morning.

Students in an uproar of frustration and disappointment channeled that energy in staging a demonstration of the Mordecai Wyatt Johnson Administration Building. Over 300 students sat in the building stating they wouldn’t leave until “all of their demands were met.”

The sit-in is the longest student occupation of the Administration building in Howard University history. In 1968, students occupied the building for four days and in 1989 students occupied the building for five days.