Student athletes at the University of Nebraska are pushing for more diverse leadership in athletics using the social media hashtag #LegacyOverImage.
The campaign, which started last Thursday, calls for closing the gap between minority student athletes and minority athletics staff within five years, lessening the disparity by 50% in three years.
“The student-athlete minority population is significantly higher than the staff minority population,” student athletes wrote in a statement circulating on Twitter. “This leads to the isolation and tokenization of minority staff within their respective departments.”
Starting in the fall semester, student athletes requested that the university hire people of color as senior administrators, coaches and psychologists, as well as staff with hiring power.
The school’s student newspaper, The Daily Nebraskan, reported that the university currently has one minority head coach, Pablo Morales, who coaches swimming and diving. The University of Nebraska hasn’t had a Black coach since it opened in 1869.
Student athletes also asked the university to offer modules on racial injustice for incoming freshmen, make a public statement in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, donate 0.5% of athletics proceeds to local Black-owned businesses and annually release gender and racial diversity breakdowns for Nebraska athletics.
To commemorate the school’s Black athletic history, they called for a memorial to George Flippin, the university’s first Black football player, who was denied a captain position by his coach in 1893. Students proposed that Flippin’s picture be included in the university stadium alongside former captains.
