HBCU students have penned an open letter in response to the meeting between Presidents of Historically Black Colleges & Universities and Donald Trump.

The college president must be many things to many people. The HBCU president must be a lot more to many more — especially to students. At schools where 70, 80, and sometimes even 90 percent of the students are Pell Grant eligible, it’s no shock that presidents find themselves being parents to some, mentors to others, and sadly but thankfully, sometimes even a savior – providing the last bit of hope to those who’ve considered giving up and in. It goes without saying that our presidents are our role models. Many hail from rough backgrounds like our own. Poverty. Gang violence. Single-parent homes. However, their successes, in not just the academy, but throughout their entire journeys, attests that it’s really not about where we come from, but where we want to go and how hard we’re willing to work to get there

Over the past two days, many HBCU presidents have been meeting with Donald Trump and other government leaders at a Congressional “fly-in” led-in-part by HBCU alumna, Omarosa Manigault. Though we, the students, appreciate Trump and his administration’s uncanny openness, we can’t help but welcome this gesture with concern and apprehension. And we’re sorry that you may feel that you’re in the direct line of our fire, frustration, and fury.

We cannot help but acknowledge that this meeting was arranged, scheduled, and (on occasions) changed at the whims of the administration without much, and usually no, prior communication with the presidents and appropriate constituents. Because of the sporadicity of it all, many presidents were unable to conduct surveys and gather input from their schools and the communities you serve. Furthering our uneasy feeling toward it all.