Beginning last Sunday, Tufts first Black Student Union (BSU) hosted a week-long series of events in hopes of gaining official Tufts Community Union recognition next semester.
According to Co-Founder and Chair of the Executive Board Darien Headen, the new group aims to focus on the black experience on campus through social programming initiatives.
We are really making an effort to connect with alumni, to spotlight the black culture, and not in a political or cultural sense, Headen, a junior, said. We are making a huge push to connect with faculty. This will be the first official Black Student Union.
According to the groups Facebook event page, BSU collaborated with other student groups and organizations to host four events, including a Thanksgiving dinner, a Discussion on Hair Politics, a viewing party for the television show Scandal as well as a BSU mixer.
While the past week of events will help to show the groups active presence on campus, the events alone are only part of the recognition process, Headen said. According to him, the group must also show proof of student interest, along with a mission statement, a constitution and other supporting documents.
If recognized, BSU would be able to request funding from TCU Senate, which would permit them to host more events in the future, Headen and Co-Founder and Finance Chair Solana Davis said.
The events that we would like to hold in the future ... require money, Davis, a junior, said. It would be nice to have TCU Senates support in the creation of the BSU. The name and the reputation behind being a recognized group would really help both students coming to our events as well as our reputation.
While BSU will concentrate on organizing social gatherings, Davis noted the groups potential to host a wide variety of activities.
We will hold mostly social events, but also some academic and educational events because we think that is also important in celebrating and understanding the black lived experience, Davis said.
Headen also hopes the group will provide networking opportunities, both within the Tufts community and with other BSU organizations off campus.
One of the biggest things that I would like to see the group do and one of the key ideas that I had in creating the group was making sure that this group could branch out to other schools, Headen said.
While other black affinity organizations already exist on campus, the BSU plans to take a predominately social route, rather than a cultural or political route, Davis said.
We didnt think it was fair for the [Pan-African Alliance] to have to be both the political and the social aspect on this campus for discussing and celebrating the black experience, Davis said. One of our main goals is to create more social opportunities on campus for students.
Davis added that BSU also differs from other groups in terms of racial and ethnic distinctions.
African and black is not the same thing, Davis said. Though black is a race and African is an ethnicity, it is unfair to clump the two together. The BSU is going to focus more on the black American experience while still recognizing the historical connections between African students, African American students and black American students.
Before gaining TCU Judiciary recognition, group founders hope to fill a few more executive board positions for younger students.
We want to have space for first year and sophomore students, Headen said. We want to make sure that the group sustains and that we can look back years from now and still see that the group is functioning on campus.
Headen also hopes that BSU will serve as a unifying organization among the other black affinity groups.
I would love to see more collaboration, especially groups that work more closely with the Africana Center, Headen said.
Both Headen and Davis are optimistic about the large degrees of support they have already received across campus. Davis also hopes that BSU will contribute to making Tufts an open-minded environment.
The BSU will celebrate and encourage people to understand that there are different perspectives, Davis said. We all have different identities, and we need to acknowledge as well as celebrate and come together based on them.
