Brandon Smith, newly elected president of the Black Student Union, said he never planned to go into politics until he was elected class president in high school. He now works with the emerging minority voices on the University campus at the BSU.
Smith said the BSU works in conjunction with 23 African-American organizations, ranging from social fraternities and sororities such as Omega Psi Phi and Delta Sigma Theta, to academic organizations such as the National Association of Black Engineers and service organizations such as Alpha Phi Omega.
Outgoing BSU president Daphne LaSalle said the BSU is not really an umbrella organization for the minority community because that description implies a top-down structure.
“It’s more like a unifying, cohesive organization, more like a bowl,” LaSalle said.
BSU’s main purpose is to help minority organizations pool resources, promote one another’s events and coordinate events so they do not overlap one another, LaSalle said.
As incoming president, Smith said one focus would be event coordination so that the minority events do not overlap.
“We have been stretching their constituents thin,” he said.
Smith said the biggest myth about the BSU is that it is a “black student government.”
While the BSU does govern certain minority organizations, Smith is wary of the term “black student government” because he does not want people to think SG is for whites and the BSU is for blacks.
It is not a separate entity, he said. It is not intended to divide blacks or other minorities from the general campus populace. He wants to see a more integrated governing body.
The BSU has a positive mission, he said.
“It’s a union developed to promoting the political, social, economic and above all, educational causes and concerns of the black and other minority populace,” Smith said.
Part of this commitment will take place this week. The BSU will sponsor a forum on “hip-hop feminism” Thursday. Also, this weekend is the organization’s annual spring recruitment and retention festival, Spring Fest.
LaSalle said the BSU will bring in 150 of the most promising minority high school juniors in Louisiana, who will participate in orientation programs and social activities in an attempt to increase LSU’s minority enrollment status.
The festival includes a fashion show at the Rec Center Friday night followed by a block party sponsored by Residence Hall Association and BSU. All students are invited to enjoy the free food, music, dancing and giveaways, LaSalle said.
BSU’s culminating event of the semester will be its annual awards banquet at the Faculty Club on May 6.
Students can expect the BSU to be a more aggressive student organization when it comes to important minority issues, Smith said. Its first goal is to raise awareness that these issues exist, such as the fact that the number of black faculty at LSU is at or under 1 percent of the total faculty.
“The first step to all political action is awareness,” Smith said. “But we’ve got to get not only the black community but galvanize a cross-section of the population.”
Smith said the BSU plans to adopt a plan of action to work with the Black Faculty Caucus, stay in contact with the African and African-American Studies Department and present its research to the administration.
“The school is doing a decent job recruiting minority graduate students, but we have to bring that same commitment, determination and vigor to recruit minority faculty and staff,” Smith said. “I don’t feel the faculty represents the ethnic and cultural diversity in the student population.”
Smith asked students of all races and ethnicities to participate, saying the BSU is open to all who share their vision of equality for all races.
Students interested in more information can visit the BSU in the African American Cultural Center on Raphael Semmes Road or call at 578-4339.