End of the Year Reception (a.k.a Goodbye Sarah Deming!)

As the school year drew to a rapid close last year, BSU still had a few events left to wrap up, primarily the End of the Year Faculty Reception Dinner. It was a beautiful and warm sunny day on the Whitman campus and at 4pm members began to head over to the amazing Baker Faculty Center to begin setting up.

Nick prepares for the slide show

Olivia, our computer technician for the evening

Bon Appetit was gracious enough to cater the event--the food certainly looked amazing and we all could not wait to try it!

The beautiful table settings

The anxious line for food

We invited more than 20 professors and many of them showed us the honor of attending! Among those I had the pleasure of meeting were Professors Noah Leavitt and Helen Kim of the Sociology department along with their beautiful son...

The Professors are intrigued by Tumi's scintillating conversation

...our Advisor Professor Nadine Knight of the English Department (left)....

Professor Knight and her colleagues are all smiles

... Professor Jacqueline Woodfork of History...

Olivia and Bao-Tram share conversation with Professor Woodfork

...and Juli Dunn of the Academic Resource Center.

Laetitiah and me with Juli

One of our main goals with this event every year is to network and form connections with staff and faculty on campus, along with creating awareness of Black Student Union on campus. We were proud with the huge success the afternoon turned out to be!

Allan speaks with a professor while Juli is animated in the background

Enjoying a conversation around the table

After everyone had sat down and was comfortable...

 Presidents Tumisang Mothei and Nick Chow gathered everyone's attention.

All eyes are on Nick and Tumi

After introductory remarks, the slide show put together by Olivia compiling photos from our events during the year is shown.

The show begins...

Then the moment our members were waiting for finally came: time to honor Sarah Deming! Sarah served as BSU President for two years and as Secretary in her last semester. She was involved in everything from a sorority to the Whitman Investment Company to the A-Team--a list too long to mention even here. We respect her and admire and truly miss her now that she's gone! She's off to bigger and better things and we we really to show our appreciation for her and all she's done for BSU! 

Earlier in the afternoon, Nick and I ventured off campus and bought Sarah two beautiful bouquets of rich red roses, complete with wrapping.

Nick and I smile for Sarah!

A beautiful card went around and all of our members wrote touching notes to Sarah about how much she means to them.

Nick and I presented the gifts to her in front of the crowd--she was very surprised and happy.

Sarah with her sucessors

To conclude the wonderful afternoon, all guests still remaining gathered on the grand staircase to take a photo to commemorate the day.

Thank to everyone who came and shared this day with us!

Love, BSU

SOUL FOOD NIGHT 2010!

Soul Food Night is quickly approaching, guys!

Next Friday, October 22, in  Prentiss Dining Hall, it's going down!.

BE THERE for...

• MUSIC!!
• GOOD CONVERSATION!
• DELICIOUS FOOD!

Love

BSU!

Whitman Feud

Whitman Events Board (WEB) has strive to be an active part on campus. One of their efforts included the first-ever Whitman Feud, inspired by the popular television show, Family Feud, hosted Sunday April 4th on campus.

BSU and three other groups formed teams to compete in this exciting new challenge, and Sarah, Nick, Laetitiah, and Olivia stepped up on this sunny Sunday afternoon to spread BSUs name. Sporting our new club shirts, we were surely the most smartly-dressed group represented.

Lookin' good!

The teams were pumped and ready to test their knowledge as the Feud was centered on questions around Whitman. Because it was new, no one knew what to expect and the surprise was all that more enjoyable. Questions posed included, Favorite Place to Play Hide-and-Seek, Favorite Study Location, Best Voted Place for a First Date, Favorite Dining Hall Meal, Top Reason for Visiting the Library, Easiest Major on Campus, Most Popular Professor, and other quirky and unconventional questions.

Ready and estastic!

All teams were thrown for a loop and much deliberation was needed!

Deep in thought...

But the answers were even more surprising than the questions! Favorite meal was Taco Tuesday, favorite date spot was the wheat fields and Best Hide-and-Seek spot was...the library! Unsurprisingly though, the top non-academic reason for going to the library was to socialize and the "easiest" major on campus was voted Sociology.

Laetitiah is surprised at the answers

The score was tied early in the game...

The competition gets intense!

...but  not with us! Sadly, BSU did not win,,no cute trophy for us! No matter, we tried our hardest!

Awesome job guys! Your dedication is very much appreciated!

BSU at the Whitman Undergraduate Conference

The Whitman Undergraduate Conference (WUC) celebrates students' academic excellence and creativity. Here is some background:

"The Whitman Undergraduate Conference celebrates the scholarship and creativity of the Whitman student body through a day devoted entirely to our students’ accomplishments.

The Twelfth Annual Whitman Undergraduate Conference brings together students from every academic area of Whitman College to share their research and creative projects with the campus community.

The conference is noteworthy for the variety of presentations, which take the form of talks, poster presentations, musical performances and artistic exhibitions.

The abstracts in this program attest to the original work students have produced in their courses, senior theses, summer internships and on study abroad."

--Whitman website

In keeping with tradition, all classes were closed for the WUC but the campus was by no means dead. Students woke up early to attend early sessions and hundreds of WUC booklets could be seen toted under arms as students hurried to sessions around campus.

BSUs own Sarah Deming and Robert Crenshaw both prepared presentations for the event. Unfortunately, their presentations were both during the same session, and as such, both at the same time--we couldn't be at the same place at once!

Laetitiah and I attended Robert's talk under the subtitle Identity and Self-Determination, entitled, "What's Good with Ebonics?": An exploration of Linguistic, Identity, Perceptions, and Controversy.

The room was packed as Robert's topic drew considerable interest among Whitman students and the community. Robert focused on the ignorance on the Black community, and the exploration of Ebonics as a language, and how to address the ignorance.

It was a talk to be applauded!

Great job, Robert!

Sarah prepared a no-doubt riveting exploration under Passage to Asia, titled, The Economic Importance of Indian Opium and Trade with China on Britain's Economy, 1843-1890. I'm confident that those who had the privelege of attending were entirely fascinated!

BSU was very proud to see our members taking charge academically. Great job, Robert and Sarah!

Zumba Fitness!

Are you looking for a fun and exciting way to get a complete cardio workout?

Is your daily workout routine repetitive and brain-numbing?

Well *drum roll*...

Club Latino and the Black Student Union are collaboratively hosting a 

Zumba Fitness Workshop, 

which is a dance inspired fitness workout, that uses the dynamic mixture of Latin and International music to give participants a complete and entertaining dance workout. If you are still unclear about this concept, click here for a more fleshed-out explanation. Here is the information as it stands:

Zumba Fitness Workshop instructed by Elena Enriquez (YMCA)

Date: April 19th
Venue: Sherwood Recreational Gym

Time: 3:50 - 5:00pm (Avoid tardiness please)

RSPV

The Zumba class is a once-off endeavor so take advantage of the opportunity! Please note that this event is open to all students including any faculty who are interested, so drag your friends and professors from Baker Ferguson or class and encourage them to enjoy an hour of fun exercise!! One more thing to remember, BYOwB

       ------------------------BRING YOUR OWN WATER BOTTLE------------------------

Baila mi gente, baila! 

Souull FOOD!

Finally!

 Soul Food Night is always a very anticipated event at Whitman. Check out last year's pio coverage on the event by clicking here.

The menu was delicious, thanks to Bon Appetit, and we can honestly say it was a smashing success. In keeping with last year, we wanted to have topics that would sprout discussion. Sarah Deming ans Olivia Ware took the lead on this , printing out many quotes  and thoughts on food, and posted them in eye-catching areas all over Prentiss Dining Hall.

This of course got people talking (and eating)! about the scrumptious food they had waited so long for. And the jazz playlist put together by our own Yonas and Nick helped to liven up the mood. Even the basketball players were singing along!

Favorites on the menu included the delectable banana cream pie, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, greens, cornbread, grits, biscuits, and the sweet potato pie, of course!

H

Mmmm, pie....

Yumm, yumm!

How could I forget the macaroni and cheese? It was by far the best I've ever tasted. 

And I'm not the only one with this opinion: hungry students were lining up with their tupperware to take food home and save for later!

Sarah knew all about this and came prepared: "I wore tight jeans so I wouldn't eat so much! Let's hope it works!" she gushed.

A

A small sample of the salad bar and everyone's favorite, deviled eggs

Courtesy of Julia Bowman for The Pio

But good food is not all people came for; everyone also enjoyed the bonding moments and good conversation!

B

Last year's BSU members at Soul Food Night

*Courtesy of The Pio and Ellie Klein

U

Us, smiling for the camera!

It was a nice chance for us BSU members to catch up with one another over good food, have good conversation,  and for once to enjoy the product of all our hard work.

T

Tish, me, and Tumi having a laugh and enjoying each other's company

Julia Bowman, The Pioneer

It's not a time we will soon forget.

And so together we cheered, laughed and wrapped up a successful Black History Month. Here's to hoping yours was as good as ours!

Love, 

BSU

Professor Vick's Talk

Thursday Februaruy 25th was the highly-anticipated talk by Professor Vick on Racial Prejudice and Obama's Presidency.

As the title suggests, the talk was very enthralling and interesting and all forty plus attendees were deeply focused on her eloquent words.

Vick's talk discussed the political age we are in now and whether Obama being elected as president has led America into a New Age of Tolerance or A New Modern Racism.

She highlighted through her talk that these two terms are more similar than they appear and addressed the fact that Obama's election has perhaps had more of a negative effect on racial prejudice than we realize.

The talk followed many studies done on measuring racism in relation to Obama, one of which interestingly suggested that some voters opposed Obama not because of his policies, party, or his progress, but his race.

P

Political cartoon addressing the topic at hand

Further dampening our spirits, Vick presented news clippings that revealed an increasing rise in race crimes during Obama's campaign and how suddenly, race was not the elephant in the room anymore.

Vick speaks on the rise in race-hate crimes during Obama's campaign

The news was not all disheartening. Professor Vick ended her captivating reminding all that it is still early in Obama's presidency and perhaps, things will turn out for the better.

Here's to hoping change will come.

*All photos courtesy of Whitman's newspaper, The Pioneer.

Campus Events: Racial Prejudice and Soul Food Night

That's Thursday the 25th, sorry.

In Reid, not Redi, jeez!

Campus Event: Haiti-Past, Present and Future

With the 4th highest African diaspora population, it is no surprise that Haiti is yet another major focus for this years Black History Month. Along with its remarkable cuisine, the country boasts a rich culture and a fascinating history.

Come listen in on Professor Woodfork's talk, as she traces Haiti's historical path and discusses the chronology of events which have shaped Haiti into the nation it is today. 

What: Haiti - Past, Present & Future!!

Where: Maxey 102

When: Thursday, February 18th 

Time: 4:30pm

-------- SNACKS WILL BE PROVIDED!!---------