Samantha Davis/Staff Writer
Putting on an event requires a considerable amount of planning and organizing. Despite the challenges of putting on a month’s worth of events, February was a success for Black Student Union, with many of their Black History Month events bringing in large turnouts. BSU encouraged FIU students to come out and celebrate Black History Month with lectures, dinners, movie nights, dancing, documentary showings and more.
Nyobee McCall, BSU president and a junior hospitality major, and Chelsea Morrison, BSU secretary and a junior communication arts and public relations major, put in a considerable amount of time and effort to get students all over campus to learn and have fun during Black History Month.
“The turnout for the events was great, a lot of people actually came out. People enjoyed the fish fry, the Dick Gregory lecture and the movie showing we just had, ‘Fruitvale Station’. We also had a hair forum at BBC Vista Bay Housing and people really enjoyed that because they got to learn about natural and processed hair. We were able to have a good discussion about it,” McCall said.
Another successful event for BSU was the “Speak Your Heart Out” event on Valentine’s Day, in collaboration with the University’s poetry club Student Poets Eloquently Articulating Knowledge. “We had to bring in so many more chairs. It was a packed house, it so much fun and the dessert was amazing,” Morrison said. Some students did open mic, some played the guitar and outside poets also came in.
“Humoring Humanity” with Dick Gregory, an American comedian and social activist, was another event hosted by BSU. “He used to work for the government and he educates people on things they would never be able to find on Google,” McCall said. “We were allowed to have him speak at our event for 45 minutes and this man spoke for two hours.”
McCall and Morrison also organized a kissing booth event in GC where they sold kisses–the candy–and students took photos and donated money to Relay for Life. “We got gift cards for the students who donated, that was the main incentive for them,” Morrison explained.
“We try to encourage our members to participate in all our events, community service and getting involved with Relay,” McCall added.
Among the many things they did for Black History Month, BSU camped out at Relay for Life, a major charity fundraising event that supports the fight against cancer. It lasted from 6 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. and featured bounce houses, cages, live music, food and games. FIU organizations at the event all had tents and their own activities as a way to collect donations for the cause. BSU sold buttons and made crown pops, which was part of their royalty theme for the event.
Now that Black History Month is over and March is underway, McCall and Morrison are now focusing on planning events for the remainder of the school year. They can’t do what they do without student involvement, so they are also focused on getting students involved or at least interested in the organization.
“We really want to see the freshmen come out and get involved because they’re the future,” Morrison said. “We’re gonna be graduating soon so it’s important that we find people to take over for us. We want people to see that we do plan fun events, so that they’ll be interested in joining.”
Students who are interest in what’s happening with BSU can check out the organization on OrgSync.
samantha.davis@fiusm.com
Be the first to comment on "BSU put on a variety of events for Black History Month"