After 21 years as the University's primary black student cultural and advocacy organization, the Black Student Alliance will conduct a self-evaluation and possibly restructure itself this summer to adapt to a campus environment very different from the one in which it was founded.
"[The self-evaluation] is something that's been in the works for some time," said Trinity sophomore Tobie Wilder, president-elect of the organization. "We have to look at BSA's role as an umbrella group, guiding the other black groups on campus."
When the BSA was established in 1976, it was the only black student group on campus, and has been since joined by a number of cultural, professional and social organizations also geared toward black students, Wilder said.
BSA will also be considering its role on campus not only as a black organization, but also as one of many cultural organizations on campus that address issues of diversity. "We're confronted with both continuing to explore the role of African Americans and contributing to diversity in general on campus," Wilder said.
Informal discussions between BSA members and black alumni have led to their drawing distinctions between the black student body currently on campus and the one present during the first two decades of the group's existence. "Things have changed a lot in 21 years," Wilder said. "The previous generations [of black students] came from predominantly black communities. The current generation comes more from a background of integration."
Although the BSA has not been as visible and outspoken on campus this year as in the recent past, Wilder said the group has continued to play an active role in black student life. He attributed the relative public silence to a combination of different leadership styles and a lack of urgent problems. "To me it's not so much about confrontation as it is about giving people something to think about and having something in hand to propose," he said.
Despite its decreased visibility, Wilder said 75-90 percent of the membership of the BSA-which comprises roughly 300 students-is active in the organization either directly or through activity in other cultural and political organizations with which the BSA is affiliated.
Shavar Jeffries, Trinity '96 and 1994-95 BSA president, recalled several activist endeavors during his tenure with the BSA, including a sit-in at the Allen Building when President Nan Keohane eliminated the position of vice president and vice provost-then the highest-ranking administrator dealing with racial issues-in 1995 and a boycott of campus eateries when the 1988 black faculty initiative fell far short of its goals in 1994. He also pointed to the group's participation in speak-outs with Duke Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Association and forums addressing issues such as the Million Man March and O.J. Simpson criminal trial as examples of the organization's initiative.
The ongoing evaluation of inequity in on-campus housing has been BSA's primary issue this year. Wilder said BSA wrote a letter to the administration last September about the disproportionate number of black students in Trent. Since then, a group of student leaders, including the BSA president, have drafted a resolution addressing the upperclass residential policy.
The BSA is also co-sponsoring four forums this year dealing with Jewish-black relations in cooperation with the Jewish Political Action Network.
BSA activities this year also have included programs during orientation to welcome new freshmen, a Kwanzaa celebration, BSA invitational weekend, during which the BSA hosts prospective black students to encourage them to come to the University and a community outreach program that brings members of the organization in contact with Durham youth.
Jeffries said one of the most vital and often overlooked functions of the BSA is still, as it was two decades ago, to provide a support structure for black students on campus. "One of the most important things the Black Student Alliance does," he said, "is to help students understand there are others with the same problems they have and to help them meet faculty who can mentor them."
Wilder said that during his tenure as president, he plans to focus on the community outreach program. "To go outside the Gothic Wonderland and reach out and become involved in Durham is political action," he said. "Community service and cultural enhancement are key to community upliftment. Political action must be comprehensive, otherwise color lines will be joined in the 21st century by a lack of understanding and appreciation of diversity and stringent lines of class separation, like Duke walling itself off from Durham."
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