BSA Involvement at a "Commuter School"

[lulutnl3]

I'm the new president of the Black Student Association at a "local" university. Unfortunately, not a lot of students attend our club meetings and I want to change that. Since this is a commuter school and not a lot of the students live on the campus, what advice do you have that could help attract interest.

I'm already changing the location of the meetings to the housing complex's recreation room in order to attract new freshmen and sophomores that do reside on campus.

Some of the events we are looking to host over the summer and in the fall include:
Volunteer Opportunities (African Arts & Music Festivals, homeless shelters...etc)
Informative Discussions (Recycling Black Dollars, Intersectionality, AIDS Awareness...etc)
Cultural Events (visiting the local African American museum, visiting a shopping area that focuses on African-themed stores owned by Black business owners...etc)
Parties/Fundraisers (Fall = Halloween party, Winter = BSA on Ice (Ice Skating), ...etc)

Our school isn't really Greek Friendly so our NPHC is going through some issues with the administration, so I can't co-host any events with them.

Any additional advice?
Please and Thank you.

[Senusret I]

First, a shameless plug.

Second, Black Student Alliances have to strike a balance between the social, the political, and the informative, as you say. I don't envy you. I was involved with both the NAACP and the BSA on my own campus. It's tough. My school didn't recognize NPHC orgs either, so we were very careful about what we did/how we included them.

Focusing on the freshman and sophomores is a great start. I'd say the average level of involvement for any campus org will be about two years anyway. The location change is also good.

If your budget is big/strong/solid, then I say go for the gusto and try to get a major speaker as the linchpin event of the year. Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, any of the tried and true folks that a campus will throw extra money at.

Consider a "theme" for the programming for the year and/or your administration. It will help you focus and have people on one page when it comes to understanding the point of being part of a movement. Here's an example of a theme which seems exclusive, but isn't:

"The Black Man and Black Woman in the 21st Century: Reaffirming the Mind, Body, and Spirit"


September - General body meeting/freshman orientation: have a panel discussion with seniors giving advice to freshmen

October - LGBT History Month - focus on James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Bayard Rustin, and other black LGBT historical figures - many LGBT offices and orgs struggle to do programming of interest to students of color

November - Conduct a book discussion based on Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen (or bring him to speak) and discuss parallels between the African and Native American holocausts.

December - Chill Day - Last day of classes, barbecue on the lawn or some common area and play music

January - Black Greekdom Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (Get a guest speaker like Gregory Parks or Lawrence Ross or me)

February - Black History Month Fliering - Post fliers every week of different heroes from Black History

March - Women's History Month events: Women's only talk/panel discussion (We called it Sister Talk at Georgetown); concurrently have a Brother to Brother discussion focused on how men can stop rape and sexual assault

April - National Stress Out Day with Active Minds

Good luck! Hope these ideas get your juices flowing!

[lulutnl3]

I was actually looking at some old threads and your books came up and I was looking them up on Amazon.

Regarding the budget, our school doesn't support the clubs at all financially so all the money we need, we have to earn ourselves. Unfortunately our previous club officers didn't get a bank account, and somehow we have less than $50 to our club's name. Myself and the Co-President are probably going to have to spend money out of pocket for a lot of the events.

Thank you for the ideas!!! I will definitely pass them on. I'm trying to also work with other clubs on campus (Feminist Club, the Queer Alliance club..etc), but we will see.

I definitely love the ideas of the speakers coming onto our campus though. Are you signing up for the position yourself?

Originally Posted by Senusret I

First, a shameless plug.

Second, Black Student Alliances have to strike a balance between the social, the political, and the informative, as you say. I don't envy you. I was involved with both the NAACP and the BSA on my own campus. It's tough. My school didn't recognize NPHC orgs either, so we were very careful about what we did/how we included them.

Focusing on the freshman and sophomores is a great start. I'd say the average level of involvement for any campus org will be about two years anyway. The location change is also good.

If your budget is big/strong/solid, then I say go for the gusto and try to get a major speaker as the linchpin event of the year. Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, any of the tried and true folks that a campus will throw extra money at.

Consider a "theme" for the programming for the year and/or your administration. It will help you focus and have people on one page when it comes to understanding the point of being part of a movement. Here's an example of a theme which seems exclusive, but isn't:

"The Black Man and Black Woman in the 21st Century: Reaffirming the Mind, Body, and Spirit"


September - General body meeting/freshman orientation: have a panel discussion with seniors giving advice to freshmen

October - LGBT History Month - focus on James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Bayard Rustin, and other black LGBT historical figures - many LGBT offices and orgs struggle to do programming of interest to students of color

November - Conduct a book discussion based on Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen (or bring him to speak) and discuss parallels between the African and Native American holocausts.

December - Chill Day - Last day of classes, barbecue on the lawn or some common area and play music

January - Black Greekdom Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (Get a guest speaker like Gregory Parks or Lawrence Ross or me)

February - Black History Month Fliering - Post fliers every week of different heroes from Black History

March - Women's History Month events: Women's only talk/panel discussion (We called it Sister Talk at Georgetown); concurrently have a Brother to Brother discussion focused on how men can stop rape and sexual assault

April - National Stress Out Day with Active Minds

Good luck! Hope these ideas get your juices flowing!

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by lulutnl3

I definitely love the ideas of the speakers coming onto our campus though. Are you signing up for the position yourself?

Not as a volunteer.

But check in your local community and on your faculty. There may be experts who would be willing to speak to your membership at no cost.

[lulutnl3]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Not as a volunteer.

But check in your local community and on your faculty. There may be experts who would be willing to speak to your membership at no cost.

Sounds good. Thank you again. If I ever get our club to a point where we have a high amount of funds, I'll be sure to let you know.

[IndianaSigKap]

One thing that tends to work on commuter campuses in my area is to schedule some of your meetings/events during lunch time and provide pizza or provide drinks/cookies and have the attendees bring their brown bag lunch.

[misscherrypie]

I know that at my campus, and probably most others: Bring Food. They will come. In droves.

The BSO here had a wing sale yesterday, and while we were cooking up and selling the food, we did a lot of outreach to potential new members. Food often is a means of bringing people together and attracting new faces.

[lulutnl3]

We had our first mixer recently and it was a success. We had Pizza lol We finally have shirts made so we're going to try to fundraise with those. The way my school works is that we have to pay up front for everything and then our ASI will reimburse us. Great for our Greek life who have alumni financially contributing...sucks for other clubs who are broke though.
We are going to be participating in the AIDS Walk in West Hollywood though so hopefully once people see that we are committed to actually doing work and not just a social group, they will be attracted to it and consider joining.