For the first time in recent years, the president of the Black Student Alliance addressed Duke Student Government at its meeting Tuesday night.
BSA President Nana Asante, a junior, spoke before DSG to publicly respond to a letter to the editor published Monday in The Chronicle. Sophomore Brandon Locke’s letter, “A week of segregation,” analyzed the effectiveness of the Black Student Alliance Invitational weekend, an annual recruitment event for black prospective students, from a personal standpoint.
Asante said she felt there were “blatant inaccuracies” in the letter—namely referring to Locke’s statement that prospective students are hosted exclusively by black students—and she added that BSAI is one of the most effective tools for black student recruitment. BSAI brought about 130 high school seniors to Duke’s campus March 24 to March 27.
“We have a continuously and overwhelmingly positive response to BSAI in [its] effectiveness in promoting and showing black culture at Duke,” Asante said. “Black culture is Duke culture.... We find no shame in promoting this culture, especially at Duke, where we are a minority.”
Asante was motivated to speak at the meeting by the controversy Locke’s letter generated, as well as its potential effect on the impending DSG elections. Asante said she feels all the candidates—especially those running for the positions of president and executive vice president—should be informed about BSAI and form an educated opinion on the recruitment weekend before seeking endorsements.
“We are often worried that BSA can become a form of political bait,” Asante said, in reference to securing endorsements. “We don’t find it in the best interest of the BSA... to have any representative of the student body to be anything less than informed.”
Senior Greg Halperin, an academic affairs senator, challenged Asante’s assertion that BSAI promotes an all-encompassing picture of Duke culture. Halperin largely agreed with Locke’s letter stating that the weekend promotes racial restriction and self-segregation. Halperin claimed that BSA perpetuates a culture of separation at Duke by specifically targeting black students.
In response to Halperin’s comment, Asante asserted that BSAI significantly contributes to racial diversity at Duke by attracting black students to the University, adding that it does not make sense to recruit a majority population.
“To have a white student recruitment weekend would only reflect one’s lack of knowledge... about [race] relations at Duke University,” Asante said.
In other business:
DSG approved its annual budget for the 2011-2012 academic year after making minor adjustments. The budget was increased by more than 20 percent from last year—or from $67,000 to about $84,000—as some campus organizations were merged with DSG earlier this year, said DSG Treasurer Alex Wang, a senior.
DSG is now responsible for funding the Inferno, which is the official student club of Duke Athletics, and the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee, as well as for expenses previously covered by Campus Council, which will merge with DSG next academic year. Students groups, though, can receive funds from other venues.
Additionally, senior Max Tabachnik, outgoing chair of the Student Organization Finance Committee, presented the funding requests from several student organizations, highlighting the importance of their upcoming on-campus events. DSG voted to allocate funds to the Duke Chinese Dance Troupe, Kappa Phi Lambda sorority and Mi Gente for their respective programming.
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