September 6, 2012

The Legion of Black Collegians met for the first time this year Wednesday to go over changes expected for the year and get as many people involved in the legion as possible.

The meeting began with a buffet, including chicken and refreshments, quickly followed by an icebreaker led by LBC activities chairman Jeffery Perkins, in which everyone in the room ended up linking arms.

The executive board discussed expected changes for the school year.

The biggest events on campus for LBC are Homecoming Week and Black Love Week, as well as planning for One Mizzou week.

LBC President Greer Relphorde said the legion has a lenient budget for choosing speakers during the week.

Perkins said one of his goals is to increase diversity in these events, not just in minority programs.

LBC is working to become more inclusive, LBC vice president Cameron Grant said.

“One goal is to improve retention rates by networking between undergraduates, graduates and faculty,” Grant said.

Darrack Stephens, the LBC finance chairman, said his goal is to use more than 50 percent of the budget for campus programming.

“The biggest aspect is to set it up so that everyone is involved,” he said.

Other goals of the legion include regular study halls and community service projects, Freshman Action Team chairman Marnae Chavers said.

LBC has also restructured the way its meetings are set up. This year, umbrella organizations sit on the sides, whereas last year they directly faced the executive board.

Relphorde said she thinks it will make the meetings seem more inclusive.

One of the things LBC planned to change was its constitution, which the political chairwoman Cynthia Spires said is outdated. The first amendment proposed would have changed how organizations received funds, according to Spires.

The more active an organization is with LBC, the more funding it is allotted, and under the proposed amendment, an organization would not lose all funding if it missed more than three meetings. Instead, the organization would only lose some funding.

However, the amendment was tabled until the next meeting after Anthony Martin, who was representing an umbrella organization, raised questions as to why the legion would want to vote on the constitution before voting in this year’s senators.

Martin said he thought voting before electing senators would cause a bias.

“If we’re representing black people on campus but only include the organizations (in voting), then they have no voice as far as that goes,” he said.

After a vote, the amendment was tabled until the next meeting in two weeks.

Relphord said because of that, LBC would not be able to vote on funding until the next meeting, as well. She also said senators will be voted in as they apply, which will not be all at once.

The next LBC meeting will be Wednesday, Sept. 19.

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