Leaders outline goals, address stereotypes

Adrianna Midamba spoke about her role as the political affair chair of the Black United Students yesterday during their first meeting this year. Stephanie Dever | Daily Kent Stater

Credit: DKS Editors

Black United Students dispelled stereotypes about the organization during its first meeting of the semester last night.

“We are not racist. Just because (it) is Black United Students, that does not mean the white students are not welcome to come to our programming,” president Ashley Tolliver said. “We are not a cult.”

Caucasian students were among the audience. Tolliver said anyone who attends BUS meetings, regardless of race or ethnicity, can consider themselves members of the organization.

“I think they (Caucasian students) felt welcome,” Tolliver said. “People that are Caucasian feel that they can’t come around us because they’re not black, but we actually have a lot of white supporters.”

Tolliver said some of the organization’s goals for the year are:

&bull To encourage freshmen and sophomores to seize leadership opportunities in student government and other organizations.

&bull To have a more inclusive constituency in mass meetings and the decision-making process for programming.

&bull To create effective programming geared toward the 2008 presidential election.

BUS executive boars Last night, the new executive board was presented to the audience. The new officers are: &bull Ashley Tolliver, president. &bull Ondia Butler, vice president. &bull Alascia Jones, secretary. &bull Ashley Morgan, programmer. &bull Adrianna Midamba, political affairs chair. &bull Dierre Clift, academic affairs chair. &bull Kaisha Sherills, community affairs chair. &bull Dwayne Yates, public relations chair. &bull Dylan Sellers, historian.

During the meeting, officers also encouraged students to respect the renovated Oscar Ritchie Hall.

“Respecting the building is also more than just vandalism; respecting the building is how you behave yourself in here,” BUS programmer Alascia Jones said. “Don’t come here cursing, yelling, saying the n-word loud. Don’t be stereotypical in the Ritchie please.”

Kaisha Sherills, BUS community affairs chair, said the meeting was successful.

“The crowd that we had was actually really involved,” Sherills said. “They didn’t walk out the door when the meeting was over; they came up to register to vote, to sign up for committees or to be co-chairs.”

Contact minority affairs reporter Regina Garcia Cano at [email protected].