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SUNDAY TELEGRAM (Massachusetts)

February 10, 2013 Sunday
NORTH EDITION

Black student unions evolve;

Diversity embraces non-black members
BYLINE: Jacqueline Reis, Telegram & Gazette Staff
SECTION: LOCAL NEWS; Pg. B1
LENGTH: 1307 words

New attendees at a meeting of Fitchburg State University's Black Student Union might be confused when they show up:
The group's president and vice president are both white.
The rest of the executive board is black, and most of the membership is, too, but the current composition says a lot
about how black student unions have changed over the last half century. While local black student unions have a long
history of helping black students feel welcome on predominantly white campuses and of pushing the rest of campus to
address racial issues, the groups have also been broadening for almost as long as they have existed.
Worcester State University's black student union reflected the change as early as the 1970s, when the organization
switched its name to Third World Alliance in recognition of the range of students working together. At the College of
the Holy Cross, where the 45-year-old Black Student Union was feaUired prominently in a 2012 book called
"Fraternity," the group paved the way for the many other multicultural student organizations with which the BSU
collaborates.
"Our mission is encouraging diversity," said Shahein Kiaresh, president of Fitchburg State's black sUident union. "I
want people to understand what black culture is, the African American culture, how it is that we can be together now."
He added that the group isn't just about African-American culUire; it also involves the culture of Africa, Haiti and the
Diaspora. "We're broadening our horizons with everything," said Mr. Kiaresh, who joined the group because he had
friends who were in it.
Wanjiku W. Kungu, who is secretary of the BSU at Fitchburg State and is studying for a minor in African-American
studies, said the fact that Mr. Kiaresh is white has been a very visible signal to people that "you don't have to be black to
be in the club," she said.
She was one of very few black students in her high school, and when she got to 1 itchburg State, she was thrilled to
connect with the BSU as a way to "have more black friends and meet more black people. "We just want to give people a
home. "
While the makeup of today's black student unions might look different from those from the 1960s, that urge to give
black students a "home" played a role in many of the organizations.
Arthur Martin was the founding chairman of Holy Cross' BSU in 1968. When he arrived at the school in 1966, there

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Black student unions evolve; Diversity embraces non-black members SUNDAY TELEGRAM (Massachusetts)
February 10, 2013 Sunday
were very few blacks at Eloly Cross and other small liberal arts colleges.
"Academically and athletically, it fit what I wanted for an education, but it was lonely," Mr. Martin said in a telephone
interview from New Jersey, where he is now director of workplace compliance at the Newark Housing Authority. "It's a
hell of a thing to be in an environment where you're the only one or two."
The number of black men (Holy Cross had not admitted women yet) grew a couple of years later, when the Rev. John
E. Brooks, S.J. stepped up efforts to recruit black students, and approximately 20 arrived on campus, including future
standouts like Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Edward P. Jones.
The black students established a now-defunct black student corridor (which was not entirely black) and led a 1969
walkout in opposition to the disproportionate punishment of black student protesters.
In addition to the dramatic walkout, the group also articulated black students' more basic needs, like their desire to have
a station wagon so they could go to other campuses or cities to meet black women.
"Holy Cross, like everything else, is a microcosm of the country," Mr. Martin said. "When we started the black student
union, we needed it for a lot of different reasons, because I won't say we weren't accepted, but for the most part, we
needed that commonality. ... It was a rallying point, and it helped us focus on who we were."
Marcela Uribe-Jennings, who had gone to high school in Hudson but was from Chile, found a similar opportunity at
Worcester State's Third World Alliance in the 1970s. "It was a place that was welcoming to me," she said. "It was sort
of an opportunity to showcase who I was, and through the student organization, I could have events that represented
who I was. ... It was pride."
Now she is assistant dean and director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Worcester State and still sees the value in
the Third World Alliance.
"I think that our students are empowered by the opportunity to know and to get to know who they are," she said, and the
chance to be part of the group's leadership has taught graduates the skills they later use in their jobs.
Kevin Karanja, who graduated from Worcester State last year, said his work as an executive officer with the Third
World Alliance taught him group dynamics and how to connect with other departments and offices on campus. Mario
D. Reed, president of the Black Student Union at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, is in his second term as president and
said he has learned a lot from the role. Like his colleagues at other campuses, he is also sensitive to the need to be
inclusive.
"One of the main reasons to come to WPI is because it's so diverse and because there are so many different groups," he
said. If the BSU was blacks only, it would not attract many members. So the BSU tries to involve the broader campus
with its annual barbecues, Black History Month dinner and other events. Its members include people from across the
country, Africa, Haiti and Europe.
Samantha Abel, president of the Third World Alliance, said the blend of students from Africa, the Caribbean, Central
and South America, Asia and the U.S. seems like "family."
Corine K. Claxton, a local lawyer who graduated from Clark University in 2002, recalls going to her first Black Student
Union meeting at Clark with three other freshmen: a white man from Maryland, an Indian woman from Tanzania and a
woman from Cameroon. "The group explored issues relating to class, race, politics, history and culture," Ms. Claxton
wrote in an email. "It provided a platform for students to share ideas, voice concerns and explore important issues in an
environment in which students felt supported, respected and heard."
Clark, like Holy Cross, had an active black student union early on, and the two supported each other. In 1969, the same
year of the walkout at Holy Cross, Clark's BSU took over the university's Administration Center.

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Black student unions evolve; Diversity embraces non-black members SUNDAY TELEGRAM (Massachusetts)
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Most local campuses have either a black student union or an ALANA (Africa, Latino, Asian, Native American) group.
Mr. Martin, who will come to Holy Cross Feb. 18 with other founding members of the Black Student Union as part of
45th anniversary celebrations, said he does not know whether Holy Cross' BSU is still needed. "I don't know what
campus is like for a student" today, he said.
Jonathan Casseus of Boston, who is co-chairman of Holy Cross' BSU this year, put it this way: "They had a common
cause they were fighting against... whereas now, we're just a group that wants to be more inclusive," he said. "We want
to take in all different types of cultures and have a conversation. "
Mable L. Millner, Holy Cross' associate dean of students for diversity and inclusion and director of multicultural
education, sees plenty for multicultural student organizations to do.
"Progress has been made, but in many ways, those things that students saw 40 years ago... are things that still need to be
constandy on the agenda of any institution," Ms. Millner said. Her list of issues that continue today includes
recruitment, student empowerment, creating a more diverse curriculum and faculty, and ensuring that students have
places where they feel comfortable being themselves.
"I still believe that some of what they provide is only provided through those organizations, so I hope that 45 years from
now that there will be a black student union," Ms. Millner said.
LOAD-DATE: February 12,2013
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: CHART
(1) T&G Staff/BETTY JENEWIN; (2) HLE PHOTO; (CHART) T&G Staff/DON LANDGREN JR.
(1) Fitchburg State University Black Student Union executives, from left, Maggie Tersavich, Shahein Kiaresh, Wanjiku
Kungu, Samantha Willyard and Elisa Miranda. (2) Arthur Martin, founding chairman of Holy Cross' Black Student
Union, in 1968. (C) Black college students
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

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