Newly-formed Black Student Union elects officers

The newly-formed Black Student Union held its second meeting this past Thursday where they elected officers and discussed a list of events and activities that they feel the group and campus as a whole can benefit from.

Senior Charmelia Richards, who has been involved with the development of Multicultural Student Services since she was a freshman, was elected president of the Black Student Union.

"I'm very excited to be working with everyone and showing everyone how the Black Student Union can not only help our multicultural students, but how the whole campus can benefit as well," said Richards.

Director of Multicultural Services Clayton Shelvin is the advisor of the Black Student Union. His goal is to change the way black students feel about the campus and help keep them enrolled at Muskingum.

"I'm going to be taking the position of really focusing on retention and the recruitment of new black students," said Shelvin. "The retention rate has always been really low and when it comes to minority students there are very few, especially black students, that are graduating from this school and staying here."

With over 100 black students currently enrolled at Muskingum, Shelvin has the support of Student Affairs, faculty members, and the Student Senate to help find a way to keep the current black students enrolled at Muskingum while also recruiting more black and minority students.

"I feel that we, as a university, should be taking more of a focus on supporting the needs of these students as they come in," said Shelvin.

The main goal of the Black Student Union is to help keep the black student population at Muskingum at a steady or increasing level and to make sure they graduate.

One important way of achieving that goal is to make sure that they are comfortable and able to do the activities they enjoy.

Senior Jesse Gibbs has been named the events coordinator of the Black Student Union.

"I feel like there are a lot of positive and fun things that the black community can do for the campus and surrounding community as well," said Gibbs.

The organization has attracted around 40 people, not all of whom are multicultural.

"Hopefully this will be an organization that we can build more organizations like it that will help us recruit new students," said Shelvin.

Shelvin also highlighted a few of the events that students can look forward to the Black Student Union hosting.

"We are really taking a focus on building an entire month of programming around black history month in February, and there are a couple of dances and parties that I know some of the students want to do," said Shelvin. "There are a lot of [activities] in the works."

Anyone is welcome to join the Black Student Union. Meetings are held every other Thursday at 8p.m. in room 304 of the Chess Center. The organization's next meeting will be held Sept. 29.