Story by Kelly Petryszyn

     Sophomore integrated social studies education major Jason Justice said he hasn’t heard of a lot about BUS “other than negative things.” The controversy that surrounded BUS escalated last year with various instances of racial tension on campus, including a column written by Kent State alumna, Beth Rankin. To bridge the gap, UHURU approached students about what concerns and questions students had about BUS. Current BUS president, junior fashion merchandising major Ashley Tolliver, sat down with the magazine and answered students’ questions, as well as some questions from UHURU.

Q: What is BUS doing this year to smooth things over with the campus so it won’t happen again? –Jason Justice
A: We are encouraging students to really come to meetings. We feed off what our audience tells us. We understand sometimes we have some members who are going to be rude. It’s negative to say that’s BUS because you had a bad run-in. If anybody has a problem, we rather they come to us and stop by the office. Nine times out of ten, people speculate about BUS about what they heard or what they read in the Daily Kent Stater. Most of the things that are negative about BUS are based on he said, she said. It’s wrong for you to go and speculate about an organization when you have never came to a meeting or talked to the executive board. At our mass meeting we speak about problems. At our first meeting, we had three people address concerns about how we ran our organization. We understand that our community has a lot of problems, and we understand that we are the indivudals in our community who want to help others.
Q: Is it only for African-Americans or other races too? – Sophomore nursing major Amanda Lucarelli
A: We are dedicated to advancing African-American students. We want the same privileges as white students. We are open to everybody. People feel they should not get involved because we are a racial organization. All we want as African-American students is to have the same privilege as white students. It’s hard to understand until you experience a situation where you’re secluded based on your skin color. We don’t censor what we say with BUS. We are dealing with race—things are going to be said.
Q: What can we do for students to try to promote diversity here on campus? – Junior aeronautical Engineering major Michael Sciolino
A: You have to get outside your comfort zone. People who want an integrated environment have to take steps to get familiar with the unfamiliar crowd. We play (the game) link in BUS. If someone says something they have in common with you, the person yells link. It continues until the first and the last person are linked. It completes a circle, and you find out everyone has a type of common interest. Yes, we are an organization for serving black students, but we also do programs with minorities and other student organizations because we have a common ground to reach students.
Q: What are the goals of the organization? - Freshman communication major Eric Murray
A: Our goal is to provide progressional educational programs to the minority community and provide a historical perspective. We also want to keep the retention rate up. We remind them (members) what they need to leave behind. We tell students who have racial issues to come to us. We service constituents in any way we can. We try to emphasize the importance of voting and Oscar Ritchie. There is no other building like that on campus. The department (of Pan-African studies) has made life changes. There was a white student I talked to who grew up with a racist family. Her dad only liked people of European descent. She took Black Experience II because she didn’t know whether to believe either her father or what she saw in the media. The student wanted to form her own view of African-American students. In class, she listened to her professor talking about a PowerPoint based on lynching and terrorism. During the presentation, she got emotional and started crying. She didn’t realize black people went through this. She said taking the class was great because she could meet black students and learn things she never knew about black people.
Q: What do you think can be done to try to make people more accepting and open to minorities and cultures? - UHURU
A: It is based upon individuals. You can’t be scared to take a step. If you feel something is unfamiliar about other people, you need to step over that boundary to know what they’re saying. If you’re in a room of people with faces not the same as you, it can be so intimidating. Some people had bad run-ins with people of (another) race. But, you may like what you see and you may like what you learn. Once you get in the workforce, you will be with whichever race dominates. Here (at Kent) there are people from all over the world. You can take different things with you. You become more open-minded. You can be able to separate fiction from non-fiction.
Q: What racist issues still exist on campus? -UHURU
A: There are still a lot of things that go on. In class, some students don’t want to work with me because they feel I couldn’t follow through. It’s the reality we face every day. African-American students are called names. We work to better these situations. I had someone come to my office because her roommate called her a racial slur. There is no use crying over spilled milk. We can deal with these issues effectively.