A Sacramento community college paid $25,000 for a one-hour virtual talk. Was it worth it?
As an early Black History Month kickoff and belated Martin Luther King Jr. Day observation, Cosumnes River College hosted a virtual talk last month with New York Times journalist and Howard University faculty member Nikole Hannah-Jones, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the 1619 Project. Securing a speaker of Hannah-Jones’ celebrity was a big win for the Sacramento community college — and one that came with a big price tag.
The one-hour talk cost the college $25,000.
The price wasn’t unusually high in the world of speakers’ fees. Talks by celebrities and public figures can cost six or even seven figures. In fact, Hannah-Jones’ corporate speaking fee is $50,000, but schools often receive sizable discounts.
Some at the college, however, questioned whether it was the best use of the institution’s money. James Frazee, a psychology professor who attended the virtual talk, said the cost seemed “egregious” and the benefits questionable. He said the talk “had the tenor of a speaker doing a book tour” and “wasn’t a typical professional development activity.”
“In this cult-of-personality, bifurcated world we live in, as an academy (of higher learning), we’re supposed to rise above,” Frazee said. “This felt like hero worship or virtue signaling.”
Was this an instance of capitalizing on Hannah-Jones’ name and prestige to create an appearance of being equity-minded? College administrators, staff and students, including faculty members of color, argued that it would be wrong to assess Hannah-Jones’ talk without the context of the years of work the community college has done to advance equity and overcome achievement gaps.
“It meant so much to have Black excellence on display on our campus,” said music professor Omari Tau. “The best thing that a school can do is simply do the work.”
Claire Oliveros, the college’s vice president of institutional equity, research, and planning, called Hannah-Jones’ talk “an important investment in cultural and historic events,” adding, “It’s important for us to highlight people of color and women of color, particularly.”
Debate over speaker’s fees
Whether public colleges should be spending tens of thousands of dollars or more for a mere hour of a public figure’s time is a matter of long-standing debate. Some speakers are more likely to invite criticism than others.
Hannah-Jones’ work on the 1619 Project for the New York Times, which aimed to reexamine American history by putting slavery and the Black experience at its center, helped ignite a national conversation about how history is taught in American schools. Controversy over the supposed teaching of “critical race theory” has led to racist legislation banning books and “divisive content” in some states.
Hannah-Jones’ fee was taken from college funds set aside for professional development that advances equity efforts. Oliveros said no tuition dollars or student fees were used.
Miranda Roccucci, a first-year student and Cal Grant recipient, said that while the cost of Hannah-Jones’ talk did initially seem high, she ultimately appreciates the college’s goal of bettering the entire campus community.
Several said that Hannah-Jones’ talk had a profound effect on students from the college’s Umoja Diop Scholars program, which is focused on increasing the retention and success rates of students of color, according to program coordinator Teresa Aldredge.
“We had a follow-up discussion with our students, and one student said she now feels like, ‘Yes, I can be a journalist, I can work for a newspaper and I can write,’ ” Aldredge said. “I think it was very inspiring.”
Hannah-Jones at CRC
Hannah-Jones’ talk, which was conducted on Zoom and gave the audience an opportunity to ask questions, was free to members of the public who registered for it. The talk was not recorded due to a stipulation in Hannah-Jones’ contract, according to Oliveros.
Oliveros said over 500 registered for the event and 480 attended. While Hannah-Jones’ talk was made available to members of the public, staff and students at all four schools in the Los Rios Community College District, it was primarily meant for staff, not students, she said, calling it “part of our institutional support to provide ongoing training, curriculum and learning opportunities. It’s a way to ready employees to be responsive to supporting the student bodies.”
During the talk, Hannah-Jones spoke about her mentors and the importance of engaging in mentorship opportunities; her frustrations over learning a whitewashed version of U.S. history in high school and how that experience inspired her to create the 1619 Project; the need for more journalists of color; and her new book, “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story.”
Greg Beyrer, a distance education coordinator at the college, said it can be difficult to determine the benefits of these activities, which range from mindfulness workshops to talks like Hannah-Jones’. A silver lining of the pandemic, he said, is the ability to hold remote events that accommodate larger audiences, making them more cost-effective.
“Sending 500 people to Howard University to hear her (Hannah-Jones) speak in person would cost a heck of a lot more money,” Beyrer said.
Tau, one of several faculty members who submitted a question selected by college staff moderating the talk, asked Hannah-Jones how she responds to critics who fail to recognize that she’s speaking from her own perspective — a Black perspective.
“And she said, ‘… It’s precisely that reason that my work is criticized the way it is,’ ” Tau recalled. “They don’t want to share the spotlight or (grapple with) the notion that Black heroes were present in our history.”
Hearing Hannah-Jones engage with the community felt different than hearing her talk on CNN. There is value in creating — and paying for — such opportunities for community engagement and broader representation.
This story was originally published February 13, 2022 at 5:00 AM.