LBC hosts discussion on PWI's
The Legion of Black Collegians hosted a Speak On It event Thursday night, focusing on why black students chose to attend MU, a predominately white institution, and passed on historically black colleges and universities. Along with Baylor University, nine percent of MU’s poulation is made up of black students. This is the highest percentage of black students attending any of the Big 12. LBC Communications Chairwoman Ashley Edwards helped co-plan the event and conducted the forum. Edwards said she came up with this idea after attending a Big 12 black student government conference and participated in a forum on navigating through a PWI. Junior Danielle Clifton also helped in the planning of the event and said she thought this event would interest a lot of people to see why other students chose to attend MU. The discussion topics included what the nine percent statistic meant and how to make the campus more inclusive for black students. “I hope they learned a lot and got perspectives from other people that spoke,” Clifton said. The audience included two black MU faculty members who explained the importance of students participating in the Black Studies Program and how to take advantage of black mentors on campus. “I just want students to have their eyes opened to the decision they made and how it impacted their life,” Edwards said. “I want them to actually think about the decision they made to get here.”