Howard President Resigns Amid Housing Crisis and Student Outrage

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Howard University will soon be on the hunt for a new university president for the second time in just two years.

The school’s 18th president, Ben Vinson III, will step down on Aug. 31, the board of trustees announced Friday. His tenure was short-lived, as he stepped into the role just two years ago in September 2023.

“It has been an honor to serve Howard,” Vinson said in The Dig, the university’s news hub. “At this point, I will be taking some time to be with my family and continue my research activities. I look forward to using my experiences as president to continue to serve higher education in the future.”

The board of trustees announced that Wayne A.I. Frederick, a Howard University alumnus and 17th president of the university, will step in as the interim president starting Sept. 1.

Taliana Singleton, a co-founder of Whose Howard Is It?, an online campaign founded in July to hold the administration accountable for student account deficits and lack of housing, was skeptical about the announcement.

Over the summer, Howard University switched platforms for billing, causing several students’ accounts to show they owed the university thousands of dollars. Typically, students cannot register for classes or move into on-campus housing if they’re behind on their tuition and fees.

In July, the university said more than half of the students’ accounts had been resolved. During the transition process, about 1,000 students’ account updates were delayed between January and June, they said.

Whose Howard Is It? aims to support students with ongoing housing and account issues. Singleton said its GroupMe group chat has over 150 members who are students, while its Instagram page has over 2,000 followers, which she also considers a part of the movement.

Vinson’s announcement comes at a time when students have taken to social media to bring attention to a long-standing issue at the university: lack of housing, especially for upperclassmen.

Whose Howard Is It? was started by students that Singleton knew from attending meetings and press conferences regarding student affairs. Her outspokenness has led her to be suspended from the university until 2028 and barred from campus until 2026.

Vinson’s lack of experience with historically Black institutions was one of the significant criticisms when he was first selected as president.

“We need a president who went to an HBCU because they understand us more,” Singleton said. “Why are you representing students you don’t even understand and have never been in our shoes?”

Vinson’s alma maters include predominantly white institutions such as Columbia and Dartmouth College. He served as the provost of Western Reserve University from 2018 to 2023 and as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at George Washington University from 2013 to 2018.

Frederick, a practicing surgeon at Howard Hospital and professor of surgery at the Howard University College of Medicine, is often credited for boosting the university’s donations and funding during his decade-long tenure. However, many students and faculty criticized the administrator for his response to several protests over housing concerns and strikes by students and faculty over pay.

During Frederick’s decade-long tenure, several protests broke out regarding housing issues, including the #BlackburnTakeover, where hundreds of students slept inside and outside the Blackburn Center. The students took over the building for over a month to get the university to adhere to a list of demands, including concerns of mold in dormitories.

“The University reaffirms its unwavering commitment to student success and to helping ensure that students are financially equipped to begin the academic year,” the university said in the statement in July. Federal cuts, an increase in loans, and financial hardships were a few of the issues Howard Communications highlighted in the statement.

Singleton said what’s going on at Howard is larger than housing and balance concerns; it’s an attack on students’ civil rights.

Like many other Howard student activists who can be traced to protesting housing issues in the 1960s and 1980s, Singleton has directly experienced housing problems. Singleton’s interaction with Cynthia Evers, the senior vice president for student affairs, and Lydia Sermons, the vice president and chief communications officer at Howard University, has led to her and other students calling for them to resign. But she said the movement is more than just one person within the Howard administration.

“This is a battle you will not win, you cannot ‘public relations’ out of it,” she said.

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