October 28, 2011

In response to students’ questions and concerns, the Missouri Students Association’s Multicultural Issues Committee held an open forum Tuesday night to address the Legion of Black Collegians’ and the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center’s Homecoming events and its relationship, or lack thereof, with the Mizzou Alumni Association’s Homecoming activities.

MCI Chairwoman Lakeisha Williams presided over the forum and presented prompts throughout the discussion. Questions such as whether students felt excluded from Homecoming activities, what could be done to make Homecoming more welcoming, whether it is necessary to have two Homecoming courts and if the Alumni Association’s Homecoming is too Greek Life-focused were addressed.

MAA Executive Director Todd McCubbin and BCC Coordinator Nathan Stephens attended the forum.

McCubbin said MAA is open to considering points raised in the discussion.

Lack of communication, conflicting scheduling and confusing labeling of events were issues brought up as possible causes of the disconnect between the events.

Whether there are two separate Homecomings at MU was also frequently addressed. LBC tried to clarify that there are not two separate Homecomings.

“It’s really frustrating to us to hear that we have two Homecomings,” LBC President Whitney Williams said. “We don’t have two Homecomings. We have a Homecoming celebration where multiple organizations hold a lot of different activities.”

After clarifications and more discussion, Lakeisha Williams asked attendees if they still felt MU has two Homecomings. About half of the attendees still felt there were two separate Homecomings.

One problem addressed was miscommunications and lack of information about events.

“On both sides of the planning committees, there could be a better job at actually advertising (events),” senior and LBC member Danielle Owens said.

Owens said LBC does most of its advertising through emails to its Listserv, which a large number of students are not on.

“We need to merge those lists, that’s basically what I’m saying,” she said. “We need to merge those lists and put all those things together so everyone knows about everything.”

Other students agreed, saying a lack of information generally bred feelings of exclusion.

Students also said having events overlap each other reinforced feelings of separation. Having events scheduled within the same time frame forces students to choose which one to attend, they said.

The naming of such events was also discussed.

“We can’t expect to (diversify) when we have a separate Black Homecoming in the title,” junior Brittani Williams said. “I would be a little uncomfortable attending a White Homecoming Family Reunion, or a Latino Homecoming Family Reunion or an Asian Homecoming Family Reunion because it’s simply in the title that segregates the events as a whole.”

Others disagreed.

“Just taking the title off of something, I don’t think that’s going to change the scope of anything,” sophomore Jordan Williams said. “This is something that’s way deeper than that.”

Maneater staff member and sophomore Curtis Taylor Jr. said the root of the problem is the lack of education about racial issues.

“It’s not just Homecoming that’s the problem,” he said. “It really is an everyday issue that we face. Homecoming is just a representation of what we live on a daily basis because of the hype of what it is supposed to be. ”

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