During this time of immense Black death and trauma, Black students shouldn’t have to go through the labor of theorizing justice for themselves and other counterparts.

In this time, we all have a role to play in the reformation we hope will happen to this country. We support the peoples’ right to protest and to not be at the mercy of state-sanctioned weapons, and we are grateful for those willing to put their bodies on the frontline curing a pandemic.

But as a university that’s tasked with emergency management quite frequently, the response from our school should have been better.

Having to choose between gaining experience and making money is not a decision students should be balancing in a society as advanced as ours.

The more we pour into student government, the more they pour back into us.

The same way society prioritizes heterosexual and non-conforming relationships is the same way most universities, including our own, operate.

In America’s white and evangelical haze, we can forget that Black History is American history, but Black Awareness Month, as we at UM call it, is here to make sure that we never forget.

However, revamping and making the experience better will mean nothing if half of the students cannot afford it.

So many times, we’ve seen questions like “What would MLK say or do if he were here today?” and these statements are often ahistorical because King has spoken about inequality of all kinds.

We are calling on the school and administration to extend our reading days. In the past, we were given three full days, but since 2013, they have been cut down.