After the Iowa legislature passed a bill to eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies and practices from Iowa’s regent universities, multicultural student organizations, like the Black Student Union, were left to pick up the pieces. As resources were eliminated and faculty organizations restructured to find alignment with the new legislation, the Black Student Union found strength in their community, and continues to fill the gaps that the legislation left.
Black Student Union president, Jasmine Allison, described the joy that the Black Student Union brought her when she first arrived at UNI three years ago. “It felt like home,” said Allison. “It was comforting to find that community here.” Black Student Union secretary, Keymora Douglas, echoed Allison’s sentiments. “BSU serves as a community. It’s not just meant for Black students on campus, but for people to come together as a whole,” said Douglas. Both Allison and Douglas said that they connected with the Black Student Union through UNI’s Jump Start program, which allows incoming students to connect with peers and learn about different topics such as student involvement and budgeting before school begins for the fall semester. “When it comes to minority students on campus, I feel like that push to be successful comes from within our communities,” said Douglas. “And we find that community that we need within our multicultural organizations.”
Last May, the Iowa legislature passed a bill to effectively eliminate DEI policies across Iowa regent universities, including UNI. This bill forced UNI to restructure departments and eliminate roles and resources that multicultural organizations, like the Black Student Union, utilized on a daily basis. Both Allison and Douglas lament that these changes hit the Black Student Union hard. “After DEI employees were taken away, all that’s left is the space itself,” Douglas said. “It falls back on the students and takes away resources.”
The Center for Multicultural Education (CME) was once a lively space, constantly filled with students eating, chatting, studying and hanging out. Now, Allison says that it’s up to multicultural organizations to fill the CME with laughter again. “Freshmen who weren’t here last year don’t know what a full CME looks like. It’s kind of up to us to bring people into the CME and show them what it can look like,” Allison said. “You could go in at noon on a Thursday and it’s lively and there’s food and there’s an event happening…and now that space is there, but the resources aren’t, and it takes away everything that space meant to us.” Now that the CME isn’t staffed full-time, Allison described it as a “dead zone” when events aren’t going on.
Multicultural organizations, run by full-time students, have made an increased effort to fill the gaps left by full-time employees when their positions were eliminated by Iowa legislation. Through partnerships with other student organizations, the Black Student Union is pouring itself into a continued push to foster its community. Cornerstone events like the Holiday Hoopla and new events like the CME Takeover have helped bring students back into the CME and connect again. “The CME Takeover was really successful,” said Douglas. “I feel like that was the first time in months that I had seen the CME look like how it used to, and it felt really good to do that.” The CME Takeover is a newer event hosted by the Black Student Union in collaboration with other multicultural student organizations such as the Asian Student Union and UNIDos. The Black Student Union is also collaborating with the Campus Activities Board (CAB) for its annual skate night, which has seen continued attendance over the past few years. “We went into this school year stressing how important collaboration would be and how much we needed to collaborate with student organizations, and I think we’ve done an amazing job at that,” Allison said.
The Black Student Union has a full slate of events for Black History Month, starting on Monday, Feb. 3 with a Black History Month kick off event, featuring a soul food dinner. Their partnered event with CAB, the Black Student Union Skate Night, will take place on Feb. 15 in the Wellness Recreation Center.
