This year’s Black Student Alliance Invitational aimed for a more elevated tone in honor of the 50th anniversary of Duke’s integration.
The annual weekend-long event, designed to welcome and recruit recently admitted black students to Duke, had a somewhat altered schedule from recent years. A special party was held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Duke’s integration, while the yearly fashion show was omitted.
Black Student Alliance President Marcus Benning, a junior, wrote in an email Sunday that organizers sought to “elevate” the planning and execution of the weekend for the anniversary.
“Hosting BSAI during the 50th anniversary commemoration made for a particularly special weekend,” Benning said. “Essentially, we wanted to take everything to another level.”
The event, which is completely student organized, offers admitted students the opportunity to become acquainted with Duke’s academic, social and cultural possibilities. Admitted students stay overnight with current students and are invited to attend classes, go on campus tours and participate in events unique to the weekend, such as midnight bowling, a step show and student panels.
“It really helped me see how I felt about Duke,” said Taylor Brown, an admitted student from South Florida.
She added that Duke is now in her top two choices for college.
“It showed me that a lot of things I had heard coming in weren’t true,” Brown said. “I heard this myth that people of different races don’t interact, but that’s really not true.”
Even with the weekend’s enriching events, however, some students noted that the absence of the fashion show was a detriment to the experience.
“I had heard that they were trying to make it more refined—less rachet, I guess,” said freshman Amari Stokes, who attended BSAI as an admitted student last year and served as a host this year. “I understood why, but I felt that in their attempt to make it more sophisticated, they took away what had been for [previous classes] a defining moment.”
Benning said that the decision was not so much one of omitting the fashion show, but instead of deciding to provide alternative late-night social programming. In place of the fashion show, a party titled “Infinity Party: An Evening of Black Excellence” was held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of integration.
In the past, BSAI has been the object of criticism on the grounds that it promotes self-segregation and a racially exclusive environment. President Richard Brodhead previously expressed a preference for racially unified welcome weekends for admitted students. During his time as dean of Yale College from 1993 to 2004, he was active in working to eliminate minority-specific recruitment events.
“We went from having separate recruitment events to unified recruitment events where people could see the different types of support available,” Brodhead said in a 2011 interview. “Those who said it would hurt minority recruitment were not correct. The unified events worked just as well as the previous events, and I think it would be the same at Duke.”
This view is far from universal, however.
“As an individual, BSAI was really important for me to see that the black cultural experience is supported at Duke,” reflected Duke Student Government president Alex Swain, a senior.
Last year, BSA secured additional funding from the Office of the Provost, which in combination with funds from the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture and the admissions office, totals $20,000 annually.
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