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Welcome to the Black Student
Alliance website!
It is our pleasure to
welcome you to a very exciting year. However, before one can know where
they’re going you have to know where you’ve been.
BSA was founded
in 1969 in the basement of Robert Green’s home during a time
of
racial turmoil and social unrest. Since then, we have been
the organization on the
front-line of the Black student community. As Black student activism
has evolved through years of sit-in demonstrations, protests, boycotts,
and study-ins, the Black Student Alliance remains at the forefront of
Black student issues and concerns. As
an alliance, we are composed of
the vast array of Black students here on this campus, which helps build
a family and a community of a related people with a
commonality—a
Black student at a predominately white institution.
As a Black student, you are
already part of the BSA family! Against all
odds we
have excelled, and they tell us that according to current graduation
and retention rates, “the brotha’ or
sista’ sitting
to the left and right of you will not be here next year.” Our
main objective is to provide the needed tools to our fellow Black
students so that they may reach the ultimate goal of GRADUATION!
Through our collective efforts we bring bi-weekly meetings, programs,
rallies, speakers, and other educational venues to build a large
collective of students armed with the knowledge of self and the world,
so that they may grow and flourish in the world as self-determined
critical-thinkers.
Our
Agenda
-
Black Community-Building: Although the
largest of the racial/ethnic student population, we make up a mere 12%
of the total student population. We seek to build and nurture a strong
Black student community, which will be essential to our college
experience.
- Academic Retention
and Gradation Building:
We seek to provide students with resources and tools to change the grim
reality that less than half of us are not graduating.
-
Conscious Heightening:
a.
Having an awareness of one's environment and one's
own existence,
sensations, and thoughts. See Synonyms at aware.
b. Mentally perceptive or alert; awake.
Through
our
efforts, we seek to assist students in gaining a better awareness of
issues that affect them and the community around them. In
turn, we also seek to make faculty, staff, and administrators aware of
the conditions, issues, and needs of Black students here on campus in
order to assure their success as students at this institution.
Communication is central to a
community. The Black Student Alliance
serves as hub for communication throughout the Black community. We work
with Black Greeks, Racial Ethnic Student Aides, Black faculty and
staff, the Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA) as well
as other
organizations and entities on campus and in the community.
BSA
also provides training and retreats for the Black Caucus organizations
in the residence halls on campus. Our closest relationships are with
the Office of Racial Ethnic Student Affairs (ORESA), and other student
groups for students of color on campus-- Culturas de las Razas
Unidas/Culturals of the United People (CRU), a Chicano-Latino
organization, North American Indigenous Student Organization (NAISO),
and Asian Pacific American Student Organization (APASO). These four
organizations, BSA, APASO, CRU, and NAISO, make up the Council of
Racial Ethnic Students, and are the voice of students of color on
campus. BSA also works with MSU’s student government, the
Associated Students of Michigan State University (ASMSU), and the
residence halls government, Residence Hall Association (RHA).
Additionally, this website
provides a wide range of resources for the
Black student community. So, please take your time to experience all
this website has to offer. Read up on BSA and Black Caucus history, in
addition to the evolution of Black Student Activism on campus. Looking
for a particular organization, office, or faculty member? Well, check
out our resource pages. Would you like to be aware of events in the
Black student community? Visit our calendar of events. If you
would like your organization’s event posted on the calendar,
please email our Communications Director at bsaemail@msu.edu. Get to
know your board members and feel free to contact them by visiting the
Board of Directors page. Lastly, don’t forget to drop a note
in
the BSA Guestbook before you leave!
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