LBC hosts Black Love Week

Week of forums and socials hopes to involve more than black community.

By Megan Pearl

Published April 6, 2010

The Legion of Black Collegians is hosting Black Love Week in collaboration with other organizations in order to raise student involvement.

The week, dubbed "One Campus, One Week, One Love," began with the State of Black Mizzou Part Two panel and forum.

LBC President-elect Lisa White said LBC is aiming to involve more of campus in the activities this year.

"We would like other organizations to get insight into what LBC does," Activities Chairwoman Kristen Andrews said.

White said the open forum touched on campus issues, such as mentoring, Academic Retention Services and the general college experience as an undergraduate or graduate student.

The event is in collaboration with the Multicultural Issues Committee of the Missouri Students Association and the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center.

"It's going to be an interactive forum," Andrews said. "We're hoping we get crowd participation."

The presentation had students identify problems and offer solutions via prepared PowerPoint presentations. James Minor of MCI identified the problem of lack of mentoring offered for students.

Minor said some suggested solutions for the mentoring issue were creating more organizations similar to Mizzou Black Men's Initiative and Target H.O.P.E. to offer mentorships for many majors — psychology, law, English and nursing are examples of majors without black organizations that could offer mentorships — and networking good mentors to underclassmen.

Another issue was the divided response between graduate and undergraduate students in regard to public response toward the cotton ball incident at the BCC. The opposing graduate students did not attend the meeting.

"This year, I'm trying to do things on a bigger scale and make slight improvements," Andrews said. "There were good things going on last year that we didn't want to lose."

Tuesday night will feature Devin Robinson, a speaker on sexual health, who will talk about the Human Immunodeficiency Virus in "God Didn't Give Me HIV."

"HIV affects everyone," Andrews said about making LBC more accessible to the student body as a whole.

A dinner for senator appreciation will be held Wednesday night for members of LBC, and as a special feature this year, there will be an educational etiquette aspect for those in attendance.

"We're going to give out awards, but we are adding on a speaker and etiquette portion," White said. "The etiquette portion is through the athletic department to teach students and faculty how to properly go through a four course meal."

LBC is hosting the "Splash Down Pool Party" on Thursday in the Student Recreation Complex.

Friday is the Field Day and LBC/Vision Fashion Show in Carnahan Quadrangle and Stoney Creek Inn.

White said the events were open to the student body, except for the dinner, which requires reservations and is geared more toward the organization.

"We don't want to stigmatize Black Love Week," White said. "It's not just for black students."