MU Faculty Council backs student group, Black Studies Department amid barbecue name change

Editor's note: The affiliation of students who attended the meeting has been clarified.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The University of Missouri’s Faculty Council and Black Studies Department are standing by a student group upset with the school after they were forced to change the name of an annual event. 

In August, the Mizzou Legion of Black Collegians posted on its social media stating its fall barbecue will now have to be named "Welcome Black and Gold BBQ," as opposed to "Welcome Black BBQ." The event had been called the “Welcome Black BBQ" for more than 20 years. The group called the decision "heartbreaking" and said it came after months of fighting the decision.

At the time, a university spokesman said the change was made because it did not want to exclude “or give impressions that we are excluding individuals with different backgrounds.” 

The Black Studies Department responded with a letter to UM System President Mun Choi on Sept. 4, expressing concerns over the name change. In the letter, the department argued that not embracing the term “Black” is exclusionary.

The letter asked for a formal apology, reopening dialogue about the name of the barbecue, implementing a way to consult with the Department of Black Studies before issuing statements on identity matters involving Black students, and hiring more faculty to increase research, teaching and outreach, in Black Studies to help MU's Black population. 

On Thursday, the MU Faculty Council discussed a response to the letter and voted on a statement of support. The council believed that the process to change the name was flawed because no stakeholders were involved in the discussion. 

“When I first heard this, I was like ‘Welcome Black and Gold that’s lame.’ I’ve never been to the Welcome Black BBQ... but I knew about it and it’s a tradition. It’s super super cool and this new thing, we should all stipulate we have to hold a vote. But, it’s super lame,” Jame Crozier, of the College of Arts and Sciences, said during the meeting. “I think actually making the decision to change the name has thrown a spotlight on it so this was poor judgment optics wise” 

Several MU students attended the meeting. When asked if the name change diluted this year's event, one student said that while it looked like the same number of people showed up, they believed several students attended because of the discomfort it would cause, not because they had genuine interest in the event. 

Kenny Douglas, a senior at the University of Missouri majoring in Black Studies, said he initially didn’t know the faculty meeting was taking place; but when a friend told him they were holding a meeting based off an email from the Black Studies department, he wanted to go to show support. 

“I assumed the room would be full of white faculty members who wouldn't really know what the experience is like, obviously. So I wanted to make sure a black study body's presence was there,” Douglas said. 

Douglas also called the move to change the name concerning.

“Any time I went to a Mizzou event that wasn’t specifically for Black students, I thought ‘Here I am at this event right now yet the Black events are under threat of being canceled or getting their names changed,” Douglas said. “It’s embarrassing this has to happen It's something that will never escape my mind and  I just know I'm going to eventually run into this again if effective actions are not taken.”

Before approving a statement sharing the concerns of the Black Studies Department, the MU Faculty Council first had to vote on suspending the rules so they would not have to wait two weeks to vote on the statement after holding a discussion. 

“I think the point made [in the meeting] that the conversation is happening now we need to make this part of the conversation, was a compelling one so waiving the rules was not without precedent. We do it often if we think something is timely and topical,” Tom Warhover, Chair of MU Faculty Council, said. 

The statement from MU Faculty Council says they agree with the concerns expressed by the Black Studies Department in its complaint concerning the renaming of the "Welcome Black BBQ", and argues that by changing the name of the BBQ, the University undermined efforts at recognizing the Black experience at MU rather than promote an inclusive environment. 

“We've heard complaints more specifically,  our IDE  committee, our Inclusion Diversity Equity Committee met with representatives from the Legion of Black Collegians,  which put on the barbecue. So the response,  as you heard from students here today,  was a feeling that in fact,  the name change didn't make things more inclusionary and made them more exclusionary,” Warhover said. 

The statement will be sent to administrators. Warhover said where it goes from there is up to the people having the conversation. 

“What matters is that we as a faculty council made a statement.  As I said at the end, the discussion that we had brought out points that I think are very important.  So regardless of whether the administration takes any action or not, we've made a statement,” Warhover said. “We've literally made the statement, but we've also had that discussion  that I think is so important that supports the Black Studies Department,  supports the students, and  supports our black community.” 

ABC 17 News reached out to the University of Missouri.