by Naomi Harris
It all happened so quickly for Morgan Ottley.
She became president of a Black student organization at the University of Pittsburgh. A deadly virus forced classes online. And then there was the weight of grief.
The violent murder of Ahmaud Arbery. The brutal police killing of Breonna Taylor.
Both tragedies brought on yet another wave of fear as the reality of being Black in America meant looking over your shoulder and questioning the motives of police.
Ottley already faced an intimidating task as she prepared to lead the Black Action Society and its members through those anxieties and killings. Then the 22-year-old heard about the murder of George Floyd. Protests swept the nation.
“We can’t just do nothing as the Black student organization on campus, like we can’t just sit here and be quiet,” said Ottley, who graduated with a neuroscience degree this May.
Yet Pitt’s administration was quiet at first. With no response or reassurance from her school, she was frustrated.
“That’s kind of a slap in the face to your Black students because they’re going through something right now, and the one place that we’re supposed to call home, hasn’t said anything — that’s alarming,” she said.
Across the country, students like Ottley are passionate about change. These students, and like-minded faculty and staff, want their universities to be more inclusive and recognize racial inequities. Yet as their leadership roles put them in contact with university administrators, they also bear the burden of trying to reform the very institutions they feel have failed to hear them for years.
Morgan Ottley, president of the Black Action Society at the University of Pittsburgh until her May graduation. (Photo by Ryan Loew/PublicSource)
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