After over a year of working to secure approval as an on-campus organization, Keene State College’s first-ever Black Student Union (BSU) is here. In a March 28 post on the organization’s Instagram, BSU President sophomore Jeadminas Alexis announced that the organization had gotten final approval to become a club.
Alexis said that she was driven to create the organization with the aim of becoming a safe space for the campus community. She noted that an initial requirement for an on-campus organization was to have at least ten members. “I had ten to fifteen people from the first day and I was so excited,” Alexis said. Alexis said that when she secured the initial members list, she was ready to start the club, but she had no idea the amount of work it took to get recognized as a student organization.
“I spent all my summer trying to work on the constitution and I would send drafts every single time… they finally got back to me for the first time when we got [back] into school for the fall semester,” Alexis said. “[Student government] kept sending it back to me… and I tried really hard to make those corrections… and they would take a long time to answer back,” she explained.
Alexis said she finally heard back in early February, but the draft constitution was sent back yet again, which was disappointing to her. “[I said] ‘is there something you guys can do so that I can do something for Black History Month because if you guys don’t approve the constitution I don’t have any funds, I can’t hold anything on campus,” she explained.
She said that she got initial approval to hold an event on campus, but it was too late to plan any real events in the month of February. “I did a little dinner with everyone in BSU… I made some Haitian food and we had a good time,” Alexis said.
Alexis said another obstacle for the organization was its name. “One of my members told me that [they were told] we can’t name it Black Students Union because then it makes it just for one group and it’s not appropriate,” Alexis said. “Every school has a Black Students Union including [the University of New Hampshire]… you can’t take that out and say that categorizes only one group of people… we got to keep the word,” she said.
After the organization’s approval on March 28, Alexis recalled feeling overjoyed. “I was so happy, the other members might not have seen how much I was working… I know they were really happy for me too.”
BSU’s first event was a dinner at Yahso Jamaican Grille in downtown Keene after getting funding for the first time.
On the importance of having a Black Students Union, Alexis said it’s about building community. “When I first got here I would see another Black student pass by and we wouldn’t know each other, and I wanted to change that. There’s no way we make such a small community in the school and be so divided,” she said. “Now I can guarantee you every Black student knows each other,” she stated.
“We have students from all around the world… that means we have a very diverse culture within the club itself, and I want to put all this culture together and share it here,” she explained.
“I want to be the voice of every Black student and other minority students who [experiences racism], and I want to teach the non-minority students of Keene State how certain things can be ignorant,” she said.
BSU Secretary sophomore Kayana Thomas spoke on how her personal experience connected her with the club’s mission, “I think it’s good because I learn a lot about what it is to be Black because I got adopted and I was raised by white people… so I don’t really know my heritage and I can learn about that through the club.” Thomas said she joined the organization’s e-board to be more involved. “I just wanted to help [Alexis] out more,” she said. “I would say [to potential new members] that BSU is a safe place, there’s no judgment there and they should join,” Thomas said.
BSU has been holding meetings at 6 p.m. in the Mason Library for the past semester, but Alexis said the new location in the fall semester will be at the old math center housed in the TDS Center building. The meeting time will change based on members’ availability in the fall.
Nathan Hope can be contacted at
nhope@kscequinox.com
