Pictured above: The Stonewall Suites’ mural represents members of the LGBTQ+ community on the third floor of Pelican Apartments.
Courtesy of Molly Ryan | The Crow’s Nest
By Isaiah Sterling
Despite a continuous whirlwind of controversy, two residential communities that target specific groups remain active at USF St. Petersburg.
King Suites, a residential community program (RCP) in Osprey Suites, is focused on the lived experience of Black students, was established this semester.
Stonewall Suites, a living learning community (LLC) catered to LGBTQ+ and allied students was established in 2019 and remains active in Pelican Apartments.
Early support for King Suites sparked debate on the student-affiliated “USFSP The Know It All’s Guide to Knowing it All” Facebook group last year. Some students said the idea was “racist and discriminatory” while others said it was an opportunity to build community.
Some students believed the community would only be available to Black students, segregating them from other races.
King Suites is available to all students regardless of race, according to Assistant Director of Multicultural Affairs and RCP Advisor DeWayne Anderson.
“We can never turn down a student based on race, gender, ethnic background or abled body status,” Anderson said.
He said he has not seen a student who is not Black apply for the RCP.
If a student of a different race applies in the future, Anderson said King Suites is also a community for allies of the Black community.
He said the university’s move to establish King Suites was mainly controversial because it was “something new” with a “natural process of pushback.”
“I think with any new thing, there is always going to be some pushback. A lot of the pushback was [the resolution] being targeted towards one specific community,” Anderson said.
The original idea to target the Black community by establishing the RPC was introduced through a Student Government resolution drafted by-then senators Jasmine Ayo-Ajayi and Karla Correa.
The resolution included demographic data that referred to USF as a “predominantly white institution” because, at the time, more than 50% of its students were white while only 10% were Black.
Its contents also included negative experiences from people of color on predominantly white campuses alongside studies on Black students experiencing racial microaggressions.
“After the resolution came to be, a lot of people were thinking of segregation, a lot of people were thinking we were just doing something random for Black people at USF. We drafted the idea for King Suites because we needed it,” Ayo-Ajayi said.
As a current political science senior, she said she decided not to graduate from the St. Petersburg campus specifically at the time of the resolution.
“I had already made up my mind that I could not graduate from the St. Petersburg campus because of my mental health. I did not need to be there any longer. I needed to be on the Tampa campus. I needed to be around more Black people,” Ayo-Ajayi said.
Ayo-Ajayi said she is glad she had a say in the establishment of King Suites at USF St. Petersburg before she transferred to USF Tampa.
“At the end of the day, I hope King Suites is something current students want, but maybe it is just something I and other senators wanted last year,” Ayo-Ajayi said.
Director of Housing and Residential Education Susan Kimbrough said students are given a choice to be in specific RCP’s or LLC’s when they complete their housing application.
Although students apply for specific residential communities, the Office of Housing and Residential Education reserves the right to assign students to any residence hall with or without a residential community if its spaces do not fill by a certain deadline.
“If all of the RCP spaces do not fill by the deadline of June 1, it is possible that we would assign other students who are not in the RCP to the spaces if all other spaces on campus are full,” Kimbrough said.
Sophomore psychology major placed in Stonewall Suites J.D. Dato said he never applied to be in the community upon completing his housing application.
He suggested USF St. Petersburg find more ways to ensure LGBTQ+ students feel welcome.
“Other than having a floor, I feel like there are more ways for USF to ensure that queer students feel welcome in their dwellings,” Dato said. “Why can’t every floor be a queer space?”
Going forward, Kimbrough said the Office of Housing and Residential Education is “dedicated to creating inclusive learning environments where residents thrive academically, socially and personally as members of the USF St. Petersburg community.”
Molly Ryan contributed to this report.
