Ujamaa Residential College, a program house founded in 1972 to serve Black students at Cornell, has seen its Black resident population decline significantly, and residents say the dorm is grappling with low funding, deteriorating conditions and a shift away from its founding purpose.

Ujamaa was created in 1972 as a result of the 36-hour Willard Straight Takeover in 1969, led by the Afro-American Society to protest racial injustice on campus. The Africana Studies & Research Center, the Africana Library and the Africana studies program at Cornell were also results of the takeover. 

“Ujamaa” translates to  “cooperative economics” and “familyhood ” in Kiswahili. The dorm’s name reflects its founding purpose as a community for Black students built around shared resources and collaboration, according to Cornell Student and Campus Life.

“Ujamaa, given the history, is meant to serve or at least be a beacon for Black students,” said Amadou Agne ’27, a resident advisor at Ujamaa who has lived there since his freshman year. “[Given] the current demographics of Ujamaa, we’re looking at [about] 30% Black residents.”

Problems in Ujamaa extend beyond demographics. Inadequate conditions have led to issues with water heating and black mold, according to Agne. 

Colin Michael ’27 wrote that during his freshman year, Ujamaa looked different from Agne’s current account, estimating that approximately “2/3 of Uj was Black/African American [in 2023], with the rest largely composed of external transfer students.”  

Kaelyn Stewart ’28, a current resident of Ujamaa, recalled a discussion she had with Black alumni who said that Ujaama “was basically like their own inner city communities back home.” 

Stewart now finds a different atmosphere in Ujamaa. She explained that now when Black students attempt to hold events in the lounges, they often receive noise complaints.

Residents like Agne feel the lack of a Black presence living in Ujamaa makes the dorm feel like it is failing to serve its purpose. 

“Being a minority student at Cornell … there aren’t very many places to connect with other Black Cornellians,” Agne said. “If Ujamaa is not serving that purpose, that’s a major loss for Black students on the Cornell campus.”

Jennifer Chen ’29 was placed into Ujamaa this year without requesting to be part of the dorm.

“There are a lot of East Asians in the dorm. Cornell just put me in that dorm,” Chen said. “I didn’t choose it, and a lot of people didn’t really choose it either.” 

In response to questions about the general demographics of the dorm, the University explained that Ujamaa is intended to be a home for students of all different backgrounds. 

“Ujamaa, like all Cornell residential communities, is made up of students from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and identities” a University spokesperson wrote to The Sun. “Students are placed in Ujamaa by expressing interest in the community or through general housing assignment processes.”

Cornell Black Students United met with University administrators and discussed housing assignments for Ujamaa in a town hall meeting on March 10. 

At the meeting, one student asked administrators how placement into Ujamaa is determined and how this placement aligns with “Ujamaa’s historic mission as a cultural and community center.” 

The administrators responded that there is no formal process for program houses and that students should “respect the mission” of where they have been placed. 

A speaker at the March 10 meeting mentioned that students continue to apply to live in Ujamaa, but are not placed in this dorm. She said that someone in the meeting claimed the placements were based on Student Disability Services, but the speaker explained “I know someone that applied to U that did not have SDS accommodations and still didn’t get it and was placed in JAM instead.” 

Another speaker confirmed this by explaining “I applied for Uj as a transfer, and they put me in a double on West [campus].” 

The influx of students placed in Ujamaa without expressing interest has led residents like Agne to believe that Cornell is treating Ujamaa as a form of “overflow housing.”

Along with concerns regarding housing placement, students at the town hall raised concerns about the facilities. 

One speaker said, “It is not hard to see that the bathrooms are dirty and grimy and there are fruit flies flying around, even when I lived there my two years, and it’s uncomfortable to shower in those conditions.” 

Agne also described inadequate facilities, mentioning, “issues with heating, water issues, there’s black mold issues sometimes — it’s pretty bad.” 

Another concern Michael has is the decline in events and event turnout for the dorm. 

“There’s a lot less events now this year held in Uj than there were in my freshman and sophomore year just because there are less people that are part of the community that are actually living in Uj,” Michael said. 

Michael explained that as fewer Black students live in Ujamaa, residents have less reason for residents to want to engage in events. 

“[If] there’s 100 people living in Uj, [and] less than 50 of them are members of the Black African American community or the POC community, at a certain point, there’s going to be less and less reason for people to go [to events] if they’re not living in Uj” Michael said. 

“There might just not be a space for POC or Black freshmen to meet in one place,” Michael added. 

While Agne said that individuals who opted to live in Ujamaa utilize the lounges to encourage group studying and informal events, there is low interest in events at the dorm. He said students are less willing to participate in events if they were unwillingly placed in Ujamaa. 

“Given my three years there, event turnout has been lower and lower, and now that I’m on the RA side of things planning events,” Agne said, event turnout is “probably even lower.”

When asked if there were any specific events that took place in February for Black History Month, Chen said, “I don’t know of it personally because I don’t think anyone in my suite actually participates in these events.” Including her, Chen explained that her suite consists of three Asian residents, one Hispanic resident and one white resident. 

Many affinity groups including Black Students United, Black Ivy Pre-Law Society and Nigerian Students’ Association have hosted events in the Ujamaa main lounge, according to Michael.

Michael reflected on how it was convenient to have club meetings in the dorm, so students could stay on North Campus. He explained that the Ujamaa main lounge is the most popular event place on campus for Black students.

The Ujamaa community allows Black students from different cultures across the African diaspora interact and embrace one another. 

“A lot of our conversations would be about ‘oh the jollof in Nigeria is better than the jollof in Ghana’, or ‘the food in Haiti is better than the food in Jamaica’” said Michael. “That was a really fun thing to meet those other cultures because it’s pretty rare to have a space to talk about that, like how it’s like to be a Caribbean Black American versus an African Black American.” 

Stewart has found Ujamaa to be “so much more supportive” than other dorms.

“If I walk around my dorm with a bonnet on, I’m not going to get a weird look or anything like that, or hair can be done in the lounge,” Stewart said. “I appreciate having more people around who look like me.”

Ujamaa has always been a place that encourages students to voice their concerns, whether it be through conversation or protest, according to Agne. 

“Many of the people who opted in to be in Uj and are aware of the history and keep that spirit of engagement with the Cornell administration alive, whether it’s deliberation, student action or protest,” Agne said. “It is very important to have a space that is full of people that are looking to change what they feel is not properly representing them in the Cornell administration.” 

“Having a living community for that is pretty cool,” he added.

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