Voters to elect new LBC executive board

Voting is today until 5 p.m. at Brady Commons and the Black Culture Center.

By Anna Koeppel

Published April 1, 2008

Voting for the Legion of Black Collegians executive board is today, but each candidate is running unopposed.

The candidates participated in a forum during the last LBC Senate meeting before spring break, where they took questions from members of the elections committee and the audience.

Presidential candidate Anthony Martin, who currently serves as political chairman, said he would focus on reconstructing the organization.

“There are a lot of things that work but aren’t as efficient as they should be,” he said.

He said he would like to revise the LBC constitution, which he called “vague,” because it doesn’t accurately reflect how the organization is run.

“It doesn’t fit things how we’ve been running them this year,” he said. “We’ll work on that to detail positions and make it so there’s no room for error.”

He said he would also like to reconstruct the Black Leadership Alliance, which operates through LBC and is composed of many of the black organizations on campus.

In an interview, Martin said he would appoint someone involved in both LBC and BLA to lead BLA meetings to separate the two organizations, rather than having the LBC president run BLA meetings.

Martin also said he thinks one weakness of LBC is the lack of communication among members.

“A lot of people don’t get to voice their opinion,” he said. “We’ve been working on it.

But he called this a minor problem and said overall, the executive board runs very smoothly.

Outgoing LBC Vice President Porscha Kirkwood asked about relevancy of the LBC List of Demands.

The list contains 10 demands LBC has for the university, including black studies as an accredited major.

The university has met three of the 10.

Martin said the list is still “very relevant” and said he would like to form a committee to work toward achieving the remaining demands.

Vice Presidential candidate Jerusha Wells said she would like to build on the organization’s history and “take LBC to a higher ground.”

She said she will go to other organizations to encourage other black students to join LBC and said she wants LBC “to be a representative of what black people have to say.”

Junior Kevin Anderson, who is running for political chairman, said his vision is to eradicate ignorance and promote positive change at MU.

He mentioned the 2008 presidential election and a Missouri ballot initiative that would ban affirmative action in the state as two of the most important issues to students.

Social Activities Chairwoman candidate Erin Vincent said she would like to hold events that represent LBC’s purpose while being fun, and Communications Chairwoman candidate Sable Taddesse said she would like to bring back the LBC newsletter.

Candidate for executive secretary Kiara Bryant said she would like to unite black people at MU through LBC.

Voting will be held until 5 p.m. today at Brady Commons and the Black Culture Center. Results will be announced at a senator appreciation brunch April 13 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Reynolds Alumni Center.

The event marks the beginning of Black Love Week, a week of events promoting MU’s black community.