AT UAB Our campaign represents a diverse coalition of University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) students extremely concerned with the state of African American Studies at the university, and chose the southern African concept of ubuntu to promote a change within the program. At its root, Ubuntu signals unity with the understanding that "I am because we are." Famously utilized by Nelson Mandela and archbishop Desmond Tutu as a concept of unity in post-apartheid South Africa. If one part of our community does not truly exist in the academic community, then UAB as a whole is deficient in kind. Let us not prolong the attention African American Studies deserves, but rather live by the words Dr. King wrote in that Birmingham jail, "Justice delayed is too often justice denied." Students interested in academic pursuits in African American Studies at UAB experience an extreme disadvantage in contrast to students at comparable universities. Our program is no longer privileged to have the support and scholarly challenge of a scholar with a Ph.D. within any discipline related to Africa or the African diaspora or diasporic experience. Feeble financial investment will ensure there will be no adequate scholars for some time. Students are subject to the tentative and precarious instruction of well-intended adjunct professors or affiliate faculty in other departments. Additionally, the program does not have enough instructors. Students spend valuable time and money substituting their required program courses for vaguely related classes outside of their intended pursuits and away from their scholarly passions. This instability discourages current students and deflects prospective ones. 2013 marks the 50th commemoration of Birmingham's sacrifices for human and civil rights. As a university community, we need to truly honor that pivotal moment in the black freedom struggle by revitalizing UAB's commitment to critical diversity in scholarship and curriculum. We cannot be complacent with where we are and celebrate our place, because we have not moved forward far enough. We still uphold the status quo. We want UAB to be all it sets out to be. We have heard UAB make these commitments. We have heard UAB honor civil rights leaders with speeches and forums, yet we have not seen the action that should have followed. That action should have been an investment in the AAS curriculum and the quality of our education. We have seen past the rhetoric. Is AAS to be treated like a retention program and other diversity initiatives? Or is it here to provide "an essential component of being fully educated," as stated by Elizabeth Alexander, that we can't get any other place else in the state? So how is the university going to renew the 50th anniversary of Birmingham's sacrifices? Years of failed commitments, cultural insensitivity, institutional discrimination, and a complacency with decaying programs cannot be ignored any longer. Is UAB going to commemorate those sacrifices by actually moving 50 years forward instead of 50 years later? What we need is not more of the same, but a genuine renewal of commitments. We need genuine renewal of our decaying program. We will no longer accept a substandard education. We demand more. We deserve more, because we are the quality students that UAB strives for but neglects. The College of Arts and Sciences' facebook cover photo proudly displays "your college, your legacy, your future". This is our university and we intend to leave behind a legacy of renewal and improvement that will lift up our peers, and future UAB students. We demand: ● Restructuring of the program by adding at least three full time tenure track faculty positions to be filled by quality professors to teach our core classes. ● Remodel current practices based on an external audit by Nation Council of Black Studies (NCBS) and /or The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) which are two leading professional organizations in Africana Studies to competently reveal what needs work and what steps are best taken to improve the program. ● That the curriculum reflects contemporary trends in scholarship and classes so that students are prepared to use up to date information and pedagogies beyond the classroom. ● The immediate creation of a committee to develop a Department of African American studies as soon as possible. ● A marketing campaign to improve the visibility and brand of the program ● Revitalization of the program through expansion of the budget to a functional amount ● Revitalization of the program through the setting of better hiring standards ● Redefinition of the boundaries of African American studies and the standards of the program based on the initial proposal for the program and student perspective. ● More physical space so we can grow and accommodate new professors. ● That appropriate student representation be present at all meetings where decisions regarding the AAS program will be made. ● Renewal of UAB commitment to diversity by working with us.