Hofstra community outraged over Black History Month post

A discussion is held in the parlor of Hofstra Hall over the controversial Black History Month Instagram post. // Megan Naftali/The Hofstra Chronicle.

On Friday, Feb. 15, the Hofstra University Instagram account posted a picture of Jessica Eads, the vice president for Student Enrollment, Engagement and Success, along with a quote from her about the importance of Black History Month as part of a month-long social media campaign.

The Hofstra community almost immediately grew outraged by the post. After a few hours, the post was taken down and a story was posted from the Hofstra Instagram account, apologizing for the post and explaining that the campaign was meant to showcase various voices.

“We wanted to encourage dialogue among all members of the community about the meaning and importance of Black History Month. But, as you told us loud and clear, we missed the mark,” the Instagram story read.

The Division of Marketing and Communications at Hofstra sent an email on Friday, Feb. 17, inviting members of the community to join a discussion to continue the conversation on Wednesday, Feb. 22, in the parlor room of Hofstra Hall.

Seven students and six administrators and staff appeared at the meeting to air grievances. Terry Coniglio, the vice president for Marketing and Communications, and Karla Schuster, the assistant vice president for Marketing and Communications, were also there to explain the situation and answer any questions students had.

Paris Martinovich, a junior criminology major, was upset by the post and went to the discussion to find out more about what happened.

“Saying that they missed the mark, that really infuriated me to the point that I wanted to come sit here because it’s like, what is the mark?” Martinovich said. “You’re encouraging dialogue to talk about something super important, but [the post] wasn’t even a conversation.”

Martinovich opened the discussion by first asking how the situation occurred and who was responsible for the post.

“Social media is run out of our team, which is the media relations and [public relations] arm of marketing and communications and we have a social media manager,” Schuster said in response. “We have, for the last two years, I believe, done a Black History Month social campaign that talks to various people on campus about the meaning of Black History Month and the importance of it. We have featured in the last couple of years diverse voices on campus, which we did again this year.”

Schuster added that when the concept of the campaign was started, her team spoke to the former Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer on campus, but have not revisited that conversation in recent years of implementation.

“One thing that I’ve already talked with Cornell Craig, the current chief diversity and inclusion officer, about is next year, making sure that we start with his division, and how we can include all the celebrations that are happening around campus for Black History Month, and what his office feels is the best thing for us to share,” Coniglio said. “I also feel like one of our big missteps in this campaign was we did not have diverse voices working on the campaign. So in that sense, it’s always going to be filtered through the wrong lens, and that’s wrong. That will change for next year for sure.”

Will Germaine, a senior community health major and the president of the Student Government Association, was in attendance at the discussion. Germaine said that in a cabinet meeting, students, alumni, administrators and faculty claimed they were against the Hofstra Instagram account replying to individual comments because it felt “overproduced.”

Hofstra publishes Instagram story after post is taken down. // Photo courtesy of Will Germaine.

“It felt like the impact deepended in hurt and the intent was lessened as more comments got replied to,” Germaine said.

One student commented “yikes!!” on the post, and the Hofstra account later replied to that comment saying “We appreciate you sharing your feelings with us and we take your comment seriously.”

Hofstra administrators also attended the discussion to talk about how the post affected them.

“For me, personally, it just solidified my value at a predominantly white institution, which I’ve worked in all my life, and it’s been obvious, but I think that kind of solidified it like, this is where you are and this is how you’re valued,” Michelle Van-Ess Grant, the assistant vice president of Student Enrollment, Engagement and Success and dean of students said.

“At the end of the day, we’re here to support our students and so we push it back, and we suppress it like we do every day when we wake up in the morning,” she continued. “There was no level of checking [in on administration and faculty who identify as Black] whereas I checked in on my team, I checked on my colleagues and my friends, but I think collectively, no one checked in on us. That also solidified the space that I’m working in.”

Chermele Christy, the associate dean of students, also shared her experience after the post was published.

“All we were talking about all night is healing ourselves to go to work the next day. Sometimes being Black at Hofstra is scary because you never know what door you’re walking into everyday,” Christy said. “I don’t want to feel that way, and I’ve never felt that way, but that Instagram post, it was painful because that post was sent to so many folks around the country. It had caught so much traction that we couldn’t undo it quick enough.”

Christy also expressed concern over Eads as some people are holding blame for her association to the post.

“Even in the midst of my hurt, I was still also very much concerned for Jess, which is crazy because I should be thinking about the damage that’s been done to me and the students that are impacted,” Christy said.

Coniglio claimed that an apology was issued to Eads.

“We did a disservice to her as well and we owned that,” Coniglio said.

Eads was unable to comment as she was out of the country, according to Schuster.