CORRECTION [11/12/2024, 11:30 a.m.]: This article was updated to correct the spelling of Marcus Mathis’s last-name, details regarding Elroy Pinks’ health condition before his death, Pinks’ age when he died and the order of Karen Pinks-Draper’s hyphenated last name.
Elroy Pinks was laying on his hospital bed in late June, next to his sister, Karen Pinks-Draper. He was speaking in utterances. “The packets,” he said to her. He was speaking about preparing the packets necessary for students in the Black Graduation.
Elroy Pinks, the executive director of the Office of Black Student Development, passed away on July 9. Nina Timofeyeva / Daily Nexus
“It was so important to him that those students were counting on him having things ready for them and being prepared to get these students on to the next thing in their life. Even in [experiencing] his own illness,” Pinks-Draper said.
A father figure, a mentor, a big brother. Pinks, UCSB’s executive director of the Office of Black Student Development (OBSD), was someone to everyone. A “visionary,” because he had plans for years in advance. An “orator,” because he could adapt to any situation with the right words and convince the unconvinced. An “observer,” because he would note people’s shoe and clothing size, carrying spare clothes in his car if they needed it.
“Elroy had this way about him and was very disarming to probably even some of the most skeptical about him and what he represented. And I’ve seen him break down barriers and build bridges in places that you wouldn’t expect or that are against the grain of what you normally would see,” she continued.
Pinks passed away on July 9 at age 52. He was very-ill, Pinks-Draper said, who did not want to disclose specific details of his diagnosis.
From his beginnings as a counselor in admissions to spearheading the OBSD, a vision communicated by student activists during the 1968 North Hall takeover, he left an indelible mark across the state. Again and again, his colleagues and friends called him a “visionary” — someone who galvanized others, who knew exactly what he wanted to do and how he would do it.
Like the flame that burns eternally on the Chemistry building lawn, his legacy lives on.
Elroy Anthony Pinks Jr. was born on Aug. 12, 1971 in Belize City, Belize. In 1973, he and his family migrated to the United States, landing in Los Angeles, California. From an early age, he was enrolled in the gifted program throughout his elementary school years at Vermont Avenue Elementary School and 52nd Street School.
An avid reader, he liked the works of Langston Hughes and even encyclopedias, Pinks-Draper said. He continued this trend as a magnet school program student at Nobel Middle School and Cleveland Charter High School, where he played football.
His parents invested money into buses and transportation so he could attend “more prestigious” schools throughout his early education, Pinks-Draper said. In 1989, he graduated from high school with honors.
His journey at UCSB began that same year when he entered the university as a freshman, where he “began his lifelong commitment to serving and uplifting others,” according to his memorial services. In college, he pledged to Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and pursued studies in biological science, pre-law and African studies.
He was involved in the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) Summer Bridge Program and UCSB’s chapter of 100 Black Men, an African American-led organization, where he mentored local high school students.
As a student, Pinks was a champion for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Pinks-Draper said he participated in rallies and marches for DEI, calling for classrooms to include DEI in their curriculum and approach to students.
“He was just very active in all of the events around driving inclusion and diversity and equity for all students, not necessarily even just black students,”Pinks-Draper said. “It was important for him that there was inclusion for all.”
In 1989, out of 17,059 undergraduate students 442 identified as African American, roughly 2% of the total student population. Currently, UCSB has 553 full-time undergraduate Black students out of 22,480 total undergraduates, 2% of the undergraduate population.
“He made it look almost effortless — like his vision and his ability to be able to just help and see the ways in which we could best be of help were like, almost unparalleled,” EOP Director Aaron Jones, who was in the same EOP Summer Bridge Program and year as Pinks, said.
After graduation, he worked as a Student Affairs Officer at UC Los Angeles in 1995. At the time, he was one of the few Black, male counselors in that space. Even then, he was still working with UCSB, Assistant Director of Diversity Initiatives Marcus Mathis said, because his work required correspondence across the UC system.
“He had all of these systems, of these paths that he used to help you understand how to navigate to whatever it is that you’re trying to work towards. When he’s my counselor, there are no fun and games,” Pinks-Draper said, who was counseled by her brother when she was an undergraduate at UCLA. “There’s no laughter, no jokes, there are no giggles. It was very, very serious to him, academics and education.”
She recounted that he designed a “foolproof” tutoring program for his mentees to do well in their studies. Since Pinks-Draper learned better audibly, Pinks sent her recordings of course readings for her to study. After 12 years with UCLA, he returned to UCSB as a Student Affairs officer in 2007.
“What struck me early on about Elroy is he was a real visionary. He could talk. He could sell a jar of pickles like he was so inspirational in his cadence, in his just passion for the work and education for people, for access, for advocacy,” Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Life and Belonging Katya Armistead said.
He then took a position at UC Davis as associate director of Urban Initiatives, which he stayed with for four years but kept ties with UCSB in his work to increase Black student admissions.
When the UCSB OBSD formed in 2020, they had initially chosen a different director who didn’t work out for “various reasons,” Armistead said.
Pinks’ former colleagues at UCSB pitched him as a replacement, and he was brought on as the semi-inaugural director of the Office of Black Student Development in 2021, with decades of experience behind him and a deep knowledge of UCSB’s campus.
The OBSD was formed as a response to Black student activism and advocates for Black students’ needs through graduation and after. It was born from the vision and demands of the Black Student Union in 1968, 2013 and 2018 — things he also advocated for as a student. OBSD develops programs and services to “increase the recruitment, retention, academic achievement, holistic support, and self-advocacy” of the Black community on campus.
“Throughout the time that I’ve known him, [he’s been] very consistent in his ability to articulate a vision for what we can do to better help support our students,” Jones said.
Because OBSD and EOP have a joint mission, Jones and Pinks spent a lot of time working together. Jones said Pinks came in with lots of ideas on how to utilize community organizational support and co-sponsorship, bringing in communities to do work typically done in silos.
“He always just had the vision for, if we do this, we can impact and support so many students,” Jones said. “Something that’s very distinguishing is the ways in which he would go out of his way individually to help and support students and their families unceasingly.”
During his time with OBSD, Pinks helped develop programs like field trips to sites of historical significance to the Black and African diaspora community, procured a grant to provide more holistic mental health and wellness support for Black students and helped students explore their career goals. One of the things he left behind after he passed was a project he spearheaded called “The Black Book,” a website which compiles resources on campus for Black students.
“The scope of some of his creativity was just really, really impressive. He had plans and ideas that were laid out four or five years in advance that he was working on. He was a very, very talented, very, very intelligent person,” Mathis said. “It’s a big loss for our campus and for the state.”
Much of his lifetime work was spent getting more Black students enrolled in universities across the state and creating resources and programs to help them thrive while being a mentor even after graduation.
“So many of his students, especially the male students, have reached out, even while he was in the hospital and were so heavily impacted and influenced by Elroy and referred to him as a father figure. And I think that for him, the desire to be a father was greatly fulfilled in the hundreds of students that he was able to influence,” Pinks-Draper said.
Since the number of Black students at UCSB has historically been unreflective of the state’s demographics, Pinks presence on campus as a role model to young Black professionals was significant, Armistead said.
“Representation and feeling like you really can be successful and make it in the combined community is part of being successful on a college campus. And when students can’t see themselves in others, you don’t feel like you belong. You don’t feel like you can make it,” Armistead said. “So he played a really important part in the success of the few black men that we do have here.”
One of Pinks’ mentees, UCSB alum and Executive Creative Director of Home is for Homies Jena Dominique, said when she walked with Pinks on campus, he’d introduce her to other students and tell them to consult her for ideas. She said he talked with her beyond graduation about her ideas for businesses and ventures.
“He always saw the potential and the concepts I was starting, and so it was mostly a lot of financial advice or ways to expand the business endeavors that I had begun,” Dominique said.
After graduation, Dominique started multiple businesses and was listed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. He later wrote a letter of recommendation for her that helped her get on the UCSB Alumni Advisory board. She said he “always saw potential.”
“He was always sharing. He was always willing. I think that’s the only thing for me, is just seeing the expansion of his heart. I feel like I always knew what his heart was, but the expansion of his heart is what became true over the years,” Dominique said of her relationship with Pinks after she graduated.
Pinks-Draper said that among his work at UCSB, projects in the community, relationships with students and work with the Church, taking care of himself was “the last on the list.”
When Pinks passed, Mathis said people across the state, from organizations in the Bay Area to Los Angeles, including people from Pasadena Community College, where he also worked as a counselor, reached out because they were affected by Pinks’ passing.
“I think it’s difficult to measure someone’s impact and influence throughout the state and four campuses and two different university systems. There are people up and down the state who all know the name Elroy Pinks, and so it’s difficult, really, to understand the impact and the significance of his presence, much less his work and his advocacy,” Jones said.
Mathis said Pinks’ energy remains on campus. He noted that at Pinks’ memorial, someone said something that stuck with him.
“Somebody at his funeral had mentioned in his passing, people have to pick up. People have to pick up. Pick up the energy, and pick up the drive and pick up his goals and missions,” Mathis said “I think that a lot of us are honestly motivated to work even harder for our community since one of our colleagues is not with us.”
The OBSD remains without an executive director at this time. Armistead said the search will begin later this year. A memorial with a booklet including words remembering Pinks is currently available on the bottom floor of the Student Resource Building by the entrance doors.
“Manifested an incomparable love,” his memorial plaque reads.
Sources from the Office of Black Student Development did not respond to requests for comment.
A ribbon and pin featuring Pinks’ portrait. Nina Timofeyeva / Daily Nexus
A version of this article appeared on p. 5 of the Nov. 7, 2024 edition of the Daily Nexus.
