Black and African Student Union
Before the B.A.S.U.
Throughout Reed College’s history there have been numerous forms of Black Student Unions, some solely based on providing a supportive community and others mainly for on-campus activism. The most public and recorded of these Black Student Unions was the one present during 1968. In 1968 the BSU occupied and barricaded the president’s office and the financial offices in the Eliot building. Most classes were halted and Reed College was temporarily frozen. The BSU’s demands were that Reed College provides a form of Black Studies Program in its academic curriculum. The BSU present in 1968 was successful in its mission for the time being. However, in 1974 the Reed College stopped providing the Black Studies Program. This is the only knowledge of any form of Black Student Union within Reed College’s history. A couple has been created several times but none has managed to sustain themselves for more than a couple of years.
Creating the B.A.S.U.
During the fall of 2006 a group of students (Duke Harjo, Nii Amartey Amarteifio, Marushka Ngahane-Baoh, & Michael C. Webb Jr.) saw the absence of a Black community at Reed College and because of the lack of a community neither knew exactly what the Black community members socially and academically needed. Therefore they created a Black Student Union which was quickly transformed to the Black & African Student Union to make a more emphasis on that this is an organization that caters to all people of African descent, not just Black people but those directly from Africa as well. With the help of the Multi-Cultural Resource Center this group of students created an Executive Board composed of all aforementioned students along with Lisa Moore, Assistant-Dean of Multi-cultural Affairs, and Serilda Summers, Residential Director for Residence Life. From here on all these individuals will be referred to as the founders.
The founders held an information session about the Black & African Student Union being created during November of fall 2006 in order to inform the Reed Community and ease any concerns that individuals may have had based on previous actions of Black Student Unions. During this information session the founders announced they would officially become an organization open to all community members and begin accepting members in the Spring of 2007. This is the history of the Black & African Student Union that exist today, for more information on the procedures and process please check out the B.A.S.U. booklet in the MRC library composed of personal experiences throughout the process from the founders.
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