With more than 50 people attending their first meeting, Texas A&M University-Kingsville’s (TAMUK) newest organization, Black Student Union (BSU) is already making waves on campus.
According to the Office of Institutional Research, there are nearly 400 African-American students at TAMUK. Yet, often these students are not equally represented on campus.
To bring unity to the black community on campus, BSU’s president Markeia Evans decided she wanted to start an organization in which students could fellowship and get opportunities they otherwise may not have had.
“Basically, I just wanted to have something for TAMUK’s black students. When it comes to being on campus, it’s not that many of us already and there’s nothing really for us, so I thought that it would be good for us to have something for us to all get together [and] share ideas. A lot of us aren’t from here, we’re away from our families, so it’s good for us to all get to know each other. And, so really the purpose of BSU is to unify us and educate us and give us a platform,” Evans said
Since Evans arrived at TAMUK, she wanted to be a part of an organization like BSU. Two semesters ago, Evans decided to take action and began working on getting BSU started. The process took a while to become an official club as Evans needed to get officers for the club, have a minimum of 10 students signed up, create guidelines and fill out appropriate paperwork required by the Office of Student Activities.
To get students to attend the first BSU meeting, people began to spread the word on social media about the organization, so when BSU held its first meeting on Oct. 18, more than 50 students showed up filling Room 321 in Rhode Hall. For Troi Coleman, an interdisciplinary studies major, seeing so many students at the meeting was a good sight.
“It made me feel great because a lot of people say they’ll do stuff and then it doesn’t work out. But it made me feel important because if a lot of people go it’s like wow other people should be a part of it as well. And, it makes you feel like maybe stuff is important [and] maybe this organization is important to be a part of and maybe we can make a change,” Troi said.
Evans has many plans for the new organization. Along with uniting the black community on campus, she hopes the organization will give students an opportunity to obtain leadership roles. She hopes to do this by having students participate in community service and hosting events during Black History Month.
“A lot of times, a lot of black students get in to school and we just kind of go through the motions and we don’t get involved, and I want to give them an opportunity to get involved,” Evans said.
Isaiah Culpepper is an exercise science, pre-physical therapy major who has known Evans since his freshman year and recalls how Evans had always wanted to create an organization like BSU. For him, having BSU on campus is important for many reasons.
He wants the groups to be a place for “information and assistance. So, they (students) have somebody they can ask and also this group provides volunteer opportunities around town…to make sure that they can be the best person they can be,” Culpepper said.
BSU invites anybody who wants to be a part of the organization to attend their meetings every other Thursday from 6 to 7 p.m. in Rhode Hall. The group is also active on Twitter and can be followed @TAMUK_BSU.