“It really started decades 
and decades ago when folks 
were calling for a new Trotter 
to recognize Black student 
rights in general, since the ’70s 
and ’80s and ’90s,” he said.
Collier earned his Bachelor 
of Arts in Afroamerican and 
African Studies and Sociology 
from the University in 2014. He 
currently serves as the senior 
coordinator 
of 
operations 
for Relay Graduate School of 
Education in New York City. 
At the Trotter Center, Collier 
remarked 
on 
the 
palpable 
energy 
surrounding 
the 
groundbreaking day and spoke 
of his hopes for the future.
“Walking 
through 
this 
building, 
I 
got 
emotional. 
Going into the Sankofa Lounge, 
seeing all those photos, it 
means a lot. I just hope from 
here on out that history isn’t 
lost and that this still remains 
a beacon and a sanctuary for 
students of color. But, like I 
said, I always mention the 
Black student organizations 
because Trotter started off 
as the Black house and then 
it moved to the multicultural 
center. I just want to make sure 

that this remains a house and 
a safe space for Black students 
here on campus.”
This sentiment of paying 
homage to those who came 
before was a common thread 
in many of the words orated 
by the other speakers at the 
ribbon-cutting 
ceremony. 
The Honorable Cynthia D. 
Stephens, 
the 
1st 
District 
Court of Appeals judge and a 
University alum, made sure 
to give thanks to Thaddeus 
R. Harrison, the only student 
activist 
with 
a 
criminal 
conviction for his role in BAM 
that has not been overturned.
Student activism has been a 
driving force for the prosperity 
of these movements, and these 
efforts are apparent in the 
construction of the Trotter 
Center’s space. During all 
steps in the process of the 
Trotter Center’s design and 
planning of its architecture, 
student input was prioritized 
and 
integrated 
into 
the 
edification. 
Notably, 
the 
new Trotter Center features 
a community lounge titled 
Sankofa on the first floor, 
a name advocated by BSU 
Speaker Kayla McKinney and 
Secretary Camyrea Barnes.
Barnes spoke of the tireless, 
accumulative efforts of Black 

students who have fought 
for a space to share their 
experiences.
“I’m speechless. My heart 
is full right now. Just knowing 
the work and the efforts that 
many of the Black students on 
this campus have been putting 
into for 50 years now, and 
now that it’s being fulfilled, 
it’s like a full circle of life. It’s 
up for the future generation 
of Black students to keep the 
momentum going.”
E. Royster Harper, vice 
president 
for 
student 
life, 
reiterated this in her speech 
to the packed room in her 
anecdote 
concerning 
the 
significance of the Sankofa 
Lounge. Sankofa, originating 
from the Twi language of 
Ghana, is stylized by a bird 
with its head turned backward 
while its feet face forward. 
Like 
its 
symbol, 
Royster 
Harper 
urged 
community 
onlookers 
to 
acknowledge 
history and the efforts of the 
past while pursuing initiative 
for the future.
“In some ways, it really is 
Sankofa. It really is this idea of 
looking back and remembering 
your past and seeing what’s 
possible for the future. And 
that’s what it means to me, a 
combination of all of that, and 

to see all of the students and 
all of the work that has caused 
this to happen over time.” 
Elizabeth James, adviser 
for BSU, reflected on the deep 
significance of the Trotter 
Center’s 
revitalization 
of 
community on campus. James’ 
roots in the University span 
across generations, — both she 
and her mother attended the 
University, in addition to her 
27 years of working for U-M.
“For me, it’s really surreal 
to see a dream come true — 
(it) means more than I can 
even express in words. It’s 
the people, not the facility. 
We could meet at Angell 
Hall, but we would still be a 
community.”
Robert Sellers, vice provost 
for equity and inclusion and 
chief diversity officer, talked 
about the Trotter Center’s 
importance to the institution 
and 
its 
catalytic 
role 
in 
creating a brighter future.
“I 
am 
deeply 
touched, 
deeply moved. The fact that 
we, as an institution, are able 
to mark this moment in time 
as a way of both symbolizing 
the incredible work that the 
BSU and many students before 
the current BSU (have done) 
in terms of trying to move the 
University forward to become 

the institution that it can be, 
it should be, and that it needs 
to be, I think this is one more 
milestone, but it is not the 
endpoint, and in many ways, it 
is a new beginning.”
Michigan 
in 
Color 
commends 
the 
continuous 
efforts of students of color 
on campus and the plethora 
of community members and 
alumni that have supported 
these initiatives throughout 
the 
years. 
We 
hope 
that 
students of color will feel 
empowered, represented and 
grounded in their rightful 
place 
at 
this 
University 
and institutions like it. We 
welcome students of color 
from 
all 
backgrounds 
to 
revel in this space explicitly 
grounded 
in 
intercultural 
engagement, inclusivity and 
activism.
But while the center is 
a positive step in the right 
direction, it is only one step 
in a larger journey. As the 
new Trotter Center begins to 
solidify its place on campus, 
students will continue to make 
strides in current and novel 
initiatives 
towards 
equity, 
inclusion, 
representation 
and unity at the University’s 
campus and beyond.

While many of BSU’s original 
demands were not fully met, 
five years later the University 
has granted the student body 
the new $10 million facility 
intended 
to 
house 
student 
organizations, lounge spaces 
and student resources as well as 
act as a safe space for minority 
communities on campus.
University 
alum 
Brittney 
Williams, 
a 
former 
BSU 
executive 
board 
member, 
attended the opening ceremony. 
According to Williams, while 
BSU members several years 
ago made the final push toward 
a new multicultural center, 
the original movement had 
its roots in decades of student 
protest and activism.
“The 
Black 
Action 
Movements were what started 
(the push for a new Trotter 
Center),” Williams said. “There 
were three, in 1970, 1975 and 
1987, and then a lot of people 
consider #BBUM to be kind of 
like an honorary BAM four. So 
I think a lot of the reason why 
people are so emotional today 
is because it’s almost 50 years 
of a push for us to have a space, 
not only like this but also 
actually on campus as opposed 
to where the old Trotter was.”
Tyrell 
Collier, 
speaker 
of BSU during the #BBUM 
movement in 2013, echoed 
Williams’ sentiments in his 
remarks to attendees during 
the opening ceremony.
“Make no mistake, we would 
not be here if it were not for 
the students who fought for 
this very moment,” Collier 

said. “When I see this building, 
I’m reminded of the Black 
Action Movements that shook 
this University to its core in 
response to racist incidents 
on campus, and in an effort to 
recognize Black student rights. 
I’m reminded of the Students of 
Color Coalition’s early 2000s 
takeover 
of 
the 
Michigan 
Union tower. I’m reminded 
of the multiple takeovers of 
the Fleming Administration 
Building 
by 
Black 
student 
activists. 
I’m 
reminded 
of 
my peers, who due to their 
dedication to this work, had 
to take on additional years at 
this University to graduate, 
and those who never made it to 
graduation at all.”
Williams herself was one 
of these students, as she was 
a member of BSU from 2005 
to 2011, and ultimately earned 
her bachelor’s degree from the 
University in 2016. According 
to Williams, during her time 
with BSU, minority students 
had to work around a number 
of obstacles in order to achieve 
a sense of community in the 
Trotter Center.
“We were meeting a lot with 
administration, and also with 
our leadership … to talk about 
ways that we could continue 
to make the space that we 
were in on Washtenaw more 
welcoming, but also to figure 
out ways to get a little bit 
closer,” Williams said. “We 
also 
started 
the 
campaign 
where we were having students 
meet up and walk together to 
Trotter for BSU meetings. So 
we kind of had to do the best 
we could with what we had, 
while still pushing at the top to 
get something better.”
With regard to the center’s 

2019 reopening, Collier also 
cited the support of Elizabeth 
James, a member of BSU 
during the late ’70s and current 
program 
associate 
of 
the 
Department of Afroamerican 
and African Studies.
“When I see this building, I 
am reminded of our immensely 
selfless elder, Ms. Elizabeth 
James, 
whose 
unwavering 
support never let the fight die 
off in between generations, 
whose steadfast leadership has 
guided us always in the right 
direction and whose wisdom 
has comforted us in some of 
our darkest moments,” Collier 
said in his remarks. “Ms. Beth, 
if it were up to me, this building 
would be named after you.”
Along 
with 
BSU’s 
foundational 
role 
in 
the 
establishment 
of 
a 
new 
multicultural center, speakers 
at 
the 
center’s 
opening 
ceremony also emphasized the 
role of the center as a space 
for minority students of all 
backgrounds to find resources 
and a community.
Taubman 
junior 
Juan 
Muñoz, a representative from 
the Student Community of 
Progressive 
Empowerment, 
explained the importance of 
the center’s reopening to the 
Latinx community.
“Trotter, for our community, 
has just been a place of 
gathering and a place of comfort 
and space for our community 
to come together,” Muñoz said. 
“We just really appreciate how 
it’s more centralized and that 
makes us feel more included 
on campus. I think that this 
building does a really good job 
of acknowledging all of the 
impact people before us had 
and how they’ve impacted our 

communities and our ability to 
feel welcome on campus.”
Public Policy junior Arwa 
Gayar, the co-president of the 
Arab 
Student 
Association, 
echoed 
Muñoz’s 
sentiments 
about 
the 
convenience 
of 
a centrally located Trotter 
Center.
“A lot of the Arab students, 
when 
they 
come 
together 
after class, they’re usually in 
the Fishbowl and last year it 
would be in the basement of 
the Union,” Gayar said. “So a 
lot of our communities were 
very fragmented. We think 
that Trotter is going to be 
a really good place for us to 
come together and foster those 
natural relationships between 
our communities. I also think 
that ASA being an umbrella 
org over a very diverse group 
of organizations, we have a 
variety of programming and I 
think that Trotter, in terms of 
the intention of the space, is a 
perfect place for all of that.”
According to Muñoz, the 
newly established center also 
represents a willingness of 
University administration to 
work with minority students 
on the issues they face in a 
college setting. As a member 
of SCOPE, which works to 
expand 
opportunities 
for 
undocumented 
students 
on 
campus, 
he 
explains 
this 
cooperation 
from 
administration is particularly 
needed 
to 
address 
certain 
student concerns.
“Currently we’re facing a 
struggle with the 28-month 
policy, 
a 
clause 
within 
a 
policy that prevents DACA, 
or 
undocumented 
transfer 
students, 
from 
receiving 
in-state tuition,” Muñoz said. 

“We (hope to) receive support 
from the public and raise 
awareness on this issue that 
it is preventing students from 
receiving education.”
LSA 
sophomore 
Sandra 
Perez, also a member of SCOPE 
present on Thursday, built off 
Muñoz’s comments, explaining 
the effect of such policies 
on undocumented Michigan 
residents hoping to achieve 
higher education.
“It personally affects Juan 
himself, and my brother,” Perez 
said. “My brother just received 
(notice) today that he was 
denied in-state classification, 
while I have been living with 
him for so many years, and was 
granted in-state classification. 
So now he’s an out-of-state 
student, and I’m an in-state 
student, and that’s preventing 
him 
from 
coming 
to 
this 
university.”
Looking back on the goals 
set out by BSU five years ago to 
eliminate similar institutional 
obstacles 
facing 
minority 
students, Collier recognized 
the 
difficulty 
of 
achieving 
change on issues of equity and 
inclusion.
“I just want everybody to 
know that this moment didn’t 
come easy; no one should leave 
here thinking that this came 
easy,” Collier said. “Nothing 
that is right and just usually 
comes easy. I think the idea of 
diversity is a bit on trend now, 
but getting institutions like 
this university that we all love 
to put time, energy and money 
into 
finding 
institutional 
racism is no small feat. I’m 
happy that we made it here, 
and it definitely didn’t happen 
merely by inspiration.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, April 12, 2019 — 3

TROTTER
From Page 1

HEAL
From Page 1
PROMOTING CONSE NT: SAPAC THE DIAG

Students interact with SAPAC The Diag, an event aiming to educate the campus community on consent and healthy relationships Thursday.

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily

LSA 
freshman 
Elizabeth 
Williamson said the setup of the 
exhibit succeeded in showcasing 
the highs and lows of the 
recovery process.
“The thing I liked most about 
the event is how the survivors 
led us on a journey through their 
recovery,” Williamson said. “The 
winding exhibit really shows 
how recovery is not a linear path 
but has many twists and turns.”
Sinko said her project was 
inspired by her time as an 
undergraduate 
student 
and 
her desire to give a voice to 
women not supported by their 
communities.
“I witnessed a lot of these 
unwanted sexual experiences, 
and the sad thing was I felt a 
lot of women weren’t being 
supported, they were more just 
being ostracized, because it’s 
not convenient to be upset about 
these things, especially when 
their perpetrators were men in 
fraternities or men in positions 
of power socially,” Sinko said.
Sinko said the Finding the 
Strength to Heal project came 
out of her dissertation study, in 
which she reached out through 
surveys to undergraduate female 
students who have survived 
sexual 
violence. 
Participants 
were recruited through both 
SAPAC and Michigan Medicine, 
so 
the 
24 
survivors 
who 
volunteered to give narrative 
interviews are undergraduate 
students 
of 
universities 
throughout southeast Michigan.
The project focused on female 
survivors, but Sinko noted she 
would like to expand it in the 
future.
“We had survivors take a 
survey online — female survivors 
only is what we focused on, just 
because we thought that being 
a woman in society, you could 
navigate the world differently, 
potentially, 
than 
any 
other 
gender, so starting with women,” 
Sinko said. “I’d love to expand 
to men or other genders in the 
future.”
The women were interviewed 
about their healing journeys, 
and 19 who volunteered to 
interview again were asked to 
take photographs of their day-
to-day lives depicting moments 
of healing and moments of 
darkness. They were also asked 
what advice they would give 
survivors in the middle of their 
healing 
processes 
and 
what 
healing means to them.
Sinko said after publishing a 
scientific article, she wanted to 
do more to make the material 
she had collected from the 
interviews 
accessible 
to 
the 
public.
“This exhibit is a product 
of 
wanting 
to 
disseminate 
all the photos, all the advice, 
all the stories, to help people 
actually use research,” Sinko 
said. “Research can kind of be 
inaccessible, so we wanted to 
make it so that students can 
actually get something out of it, 
also so that service providers 
can get something out of it to 
learn what their clients might 
be looking for in their healing 
journeys.”
Sinko said the event was 
aimed at three main audiences: 
survivors, supporters and service 
providers.
“I hope as a survivor, you can 
navigate the space and see the 
light at the end of the tunnel 
and see the journey,” Sinko 
said. “No matter if you’re stuck, 
if you feel like you’re doing 
great, — you could at least take 
something away … and maybe 
just validating your experience. 
One of my participants said, ‘Oh 
everyone says you’re not alone, 
but sometimes you have to really 
see it to believe it, and it’s hard to 
just hear that message and know 
that it’s true.’”
Social 
Work 
student 
Ori 
Benoni, a member of the event’s 
planning committee, said she 
was pleased with how the exhibit 
came together.
“I think it’s really magical and 
it really speaks to how powerful 
this subject matter really is,” 
Benoni said. “The fact that so 
many people came and are really 
touched — I think it’s really 
beautiful.”
Sinko 
said 
she 
hopes 
to 
conduct the study again with 
college-aged women who do not 
attend universities, looking for 
similarities and differences, and 
to create more exhibits in the 
future.

BEGINNINGS
From Page 1