The Umoja Program, named after the Kiswahili word for unity, offers Black students at Central a space to make connections with fellow students, faculty, and counselors along with weekly workshops that highlight personal and academic success for Black college students. The Seattle Central College chapter of the Umoja Scholars Program was founded in 2022 by Dr. Kimberly McRae, Dr. Yoshiko Harden, and Dennis Denman.
“The Umoja Scholars Program is basically the hub for Black and African students here at Seattle Central College,” said James Robinson, the current Assistant Director of Umoja. “This is the space where we can come and build community, share our experiences, and learn about our history and plans for the future together.” Robinson, alongside Kwamae Nelson, program coordinator of Umoja, also gives students the opportunity to attend larger Umoja conferences, allowing them to connect with other chapters at Highline and Bellevue College, and with the larger Umoja community in California during their annual regional conference.
The Umoja Scholars Program also offers a variety of classes at Seattle Central that center around the African diaspora in subjects including English, humanities, communication, political science, and health. They also provide academic counselors, advisors, mid-quarter check-ins to make sure students feel good about their classes, and career opportunities in the community. “Furthermore, the Umoja Scholars Program village lounge is a sacred space where Black and African students feel free and safe to be their authentic selves—which is an incredibly important aspect of the higher education experience,” said Robinson.
However, due to a large cut in their budget this year, Umoja students at Central were unable to attend this year’s conference, which has left both students and faculty disappointed and concerned about the future. “We don’t get the opportunity to meet or reach out to them often,” said Nelson, “like, we only get two or three opportunities a year, and so that just took away an opportunity for us to really bring some great things back to the students and community, and also career and networking opportunities.”
Robinson adds that being able to attend the conference is paramount to their affiliation with the community. He followed up, saying, “Being able to convene and build community and focus on what our plan is for the coming year with our larger Umoja community in California and Washington State is so important for our students and for the maintenance and growth of our program.”
Umoja also had plans to host their annual Northwest symposium for the three chapters in Washington State, but when they discovered that their $59,000 annual budget had been cut down to $25,000, they were unable to afford to host Highline and Bellevue colleges, or to visit Umoja leaders from California. According to Robinson, they are currently scrambling to figure out where they can find funding.
Aminah Gradney, a second-year student at Central and an Umoja Scholars Program assistant, shares her thoughts on why it’s important for communities like Umoja to continue to offer these resources to students.
“With how everyone is separated in the city, Umoja’s community is very good when students want to be around people who look like them and are on the same page, and it can be a really supportive community because a lot of the things I now know about is because of me having regular conversations with people in the community. Also, it’s good that Umoja has our own professors who attend weekly meetings and are approachable for students and their questions, and it’s beneficial when you’re in the community—you have these authority figures advocating for you because some students are not comfortable speaking on situations but they find comfort in talking to the staff at Umoja.”
Robinson gives his insight as to why their budget was cut this year by saying that the funding Umoja gets is inconsistent.
“From what I understand, the Umoja Scholars Program is not a line item in the college’s budget, which means that our program is not connected to state funding. We are currently being funded through our Guided Pathways grant which is subject to other requirements that we may or may not meet. And so having the opportunity to be state-funded would really secure not only more funding for our program, but consistent yearly funding for our program, which is what we really need, because as of right now, we’re depending on essentially the benevolence of our Guided Pathways grant to remain funded.”
Nelson adds his thoughts on this, saying, “I feel like students should be in the loop of some of the budget things that are going on because they’re the ones that are directly affected by all these budget cuts and things like that that are happening.”
Nelson also urges students to be more aware about issues like this and to have conversations with administration about these concerns, as well as for administration to be more open to these conversations and show their support for programs like Umoja.
Editor’s Note: In an earlier version of this story, Umoja’s budget amount was incorrectly stated. We have corrected the information to ensure accuracy.
Author
Angelo Harper is a student at Seattle Central College perusing his AA degree for Journalism. Born in Seattle and raised in Shoreline, He wrote for his high school newspaper for two years before graduating and on the side he likes to write rhymes and perform under the stage name “Lil Fax Machine” where he has collaborated with local artists from the Seattle area on several tracks and a few music videos.
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