w
Year of planning
pays off in end
for organizers
By Lindsay Young
Assignment Reporter
In the basement of the Culture Center
Monday night, about 50 students worked
together to put the finishing touches on
preparations for the Big 12 Conference on
Black Student Government, which will be
held today through Sunday.
The Interfraternity Council, students
from Doane College, the Afrikan People’s
Union, and other volunteers worked to put
together welcome bags for the anticipated
900 participants.
The groups came together to accom
plish a goal - something that organizers
said was the essence behind the theme of
the conference.
“This is when we can make things hap
pen,” said Kenny Bailey, a member of
APU.
“Black Love: Restoring the Essence of
the Black Family,” was chosen as the con
ference theme by organizers and will be
represented in workshops, speakers and
events. '
APU members have been planning the
conference for the past year.
According to the registration booklet,
“students who attend predominantly white
institutions are constantly reminded of the
stark difference between history and real
ity, and the loss of community we have
suffered in past years.”
The theme, the booklet states, “serves
to remind us that our collective family his
tory and the strength it represents are too
valuable to forget.”
Family, regardless of race, is a key
component of society, said John L. Harris,
special assistant to the vice chancellor for
student affairs.
Harris will be running the workshop,
“Creating a Cohesive African American
Community on Your Campus.”
Family helps shape values and a per
son’s view of the world, he said.
But, Harris said, because of its history
of slavery, the black family has had a dif
ficult time recuperating.
“The black family was literally
destroyed in slavery,” he said.
Overcoming the psychological effects
of slavery is a lifelong process, Harris
said. Families were, split parents from
children, and wives from husbands.
“(During) plantation days, the master’s
plan was to pit slave against slave,” Harris
said. The more chaos that could be creat
ed, the less the slaves would fight the mas
ter.
Those things didn’t die with emancipa
tion and have been applied generation by
generation, Harris said.
The conference theme, he said! shows
there is still concern relative to the black
family.
Eddie Brown, an APU member, said
the American family is falling apart and
people of color face injustices, which will
make the theme of the conference hit
home for many participants.
Adair Shanks, conference manage
ment coordinator, said the word “family”
used in the theme is collaborative, encom
passing things such as health issues,
retention on college campuses, religion
and sisterhood.
APU President Donny White said the
theme works because of that idea.
“It’s working very well because it can
be that encompassing,” White said. “It’s
so deeply rooted in everything.”
Shanks said the speakers the organiz
ers chose represent a wide variety of
issues.
Julianne Malveaux, an economist;
Cornel West, a Harvard religion profes
sor; and George Fraser, whose focus is
networking, are just some of the speakers
representing different facets of society.
There will be five workshop times
with about five workshops available dur
ing each. Workshops also delve into the
collaborative theme of the conference.
Harris’s workshop will “focus on the
challenges of realizing that, as students
who are outnumbered, there is a sense of
unity whereby you can be successful col
lectively,” he said.
He is going to take the students
through present-day issues and historical
issues that show that success.
The description of another workshop,
“Restoring, Regaining and Restructuring
the Black Family on Campus: An Athletic
Perspective,” states: “We as African*
Americans/Black people have allowed
ourselves to take on the damaging con
structs of American society.
“The result is the growing wall of self
hatred and animosity towards our fellow
Black brothers and sisters that continues
ABOVE: VOLUNTEERS PREPARE bags sf supplies to be given out to people who will be
attending the Big 12 Conference on Black Student Bovemment. From left to right are UNL
freshman Rosie Walker, freshman LaKisha Starks, Boane College sophomore Bennie
Rucker and Deane senior firm Dawns.
RIGHT: SOPHOMORE ERIC CRUMP piles bags of supplies that will be given out to partici
pants in the Big 12 Conference on Black Student Government More than 1,000 students
from Big 12 schools are expected to attend the conference today through Sunday.