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Photography courtesy of Saint Louis University
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Photography by Getty Images
On a Sunday night last fall, hundreds of protesters marched from the Shaw neighborhood up Grand to Saint Louis University. When they attempted to enter the quadrangle, a handful of campus police blocked the path. Chris Walter, then the president of the school’s Black Student Alliance, will never forget what happened next. One student pulled out his SLU ID and said, “These are my guests.” The officers stepped aside, and the crowd moved across the quad and gathered around the iconic clock tower.
Jonathan Smith, a professor in the African-American studies department, arrived the next morning to find demonstrators settling into an encampment. It was raining, so he brought coffee and umbrellas. He talked to students, faculty, protesters. “As an individual, as a member of the SLU community, and as a St. Louisan—out of every aspect of my identity—I found it both important and necessary to be engaged,” Smith says. In the week that followed, Smith witnessed beautiful moments. During a town hall discussion, the megaphone was passed to a student who opposed the encampment, the protest, and its causes. He spoke for quite a while, and the crowd grew restless, eventually trying to shout him down. Then the students who were moderating the discussion took over.
“There was this wonderfully profound moment where these students, who he was railing against, actually shut the crowd down so you could hear that guy give his viewpoint,” Smith says.
Not everyone was impressed. Parents complained, worried about their kids’ safety. For Fred Pestello, the university’s still relatively new president, this represented the first real test of his leadership. He started a negotiation, assenting to a list of 13 reforms in exchange for protesters’ vacating the quad. The agreement became known as the Clock Tower Accords. In one sense, it was the continuation of the long history of social justice activism on college campuses, but in another, it was the start of something new, sparking similar protests at schools across the region. In February, students at Washington University submitted their own list of demands.
Some alumni have objected to the Clock Tower Accords, likening Pestello’s actions to negotiating with terrorists. Most complaints were focused on the “mutually agreed upon commissioned artwork,” which some feared might mean a statue of Michael Brown on campus. But the other accords, taken individually, are hardly controversial, focusing on such things as increasing financial aid for minority students. To Smith, the accords are a natural extension of the university’s Jesuit principles. “Our mission talks about pursuing truth for the greater glory of God and the service of humanity,” he says. “I think what these accords really call us to do is to fulfill that last part.”
Over the past year, Smith says, the university has made steady progress. One of the accords called for the appointment of a “Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and Community Engagement.” By taking that role, Smith is himself a completed accord. It’s now his job to see the other 12 across the finish line. He admits that they’re works in progress, with more input needed from stakeholders on campus and in the community. Though Walter is frustrated with the pace of implementation, he says SLU has changed for the better. “There’s much more work for us to do, but now at Saint Louis University there is more of a culture of being able to have these conversations. I think that’s what college is about.”
Selected Accords
1. Increased budget for the African American Studies Program
4. Additional college prep workshops for students in the area’s most disadvantaged school districts
6. Establishment of a community center
7. Mutually agreed upon commissioned artwork
12. Establishment of a diversity speakers series
