A place to breathe. A place to meet. A place to “let your hair down.”
That’s what students in the Black Women of Achievement and Black Student Union asked of the board of trustees on Thursday. Students proposed that the University of Oregon build a ‘Black Center’ as a place for black students to have community, and that the UO hire more student advisers that are African-American and understand what that experience is like.
“Our biggest issue on campus is community,” said Fevean Siyoum, president of the Black Women of Achievement to the board. “I think it’s important for the board to understand that these advisers need to be black… White advisers will never know what it’s like to be black.”
Andrew Colas, a member of the board, voiced agreement.
“One of the things you don’t see here is a community because they’re so small,” said Colas, who graduated from UO in 2004 and is president of Colas Construction in Portland. “There isn’t a black frat house and there probably won’t be anytime soon.”
Other members of the board weren’t as sure as Colas. However, Ginevra Ralph, Board Vice Chair, wondered if building a Black Center would be a form of self-segregation.
“If I suggested that, people would say ‘There’s the white lady trying to segregate the black people,’” Ralph said. “I wish there were some other set of ideas that says ‘we do need to live together.’”
But the pro-Center students argued that it can be hard to move to a university that’s almost 80 percent white. That can be hard for students who are used to being around people of their own race all the time.
“Having that level of diversity, having that level of passion,” Colas said. “Having a place where students can celebrate being a black male or a black female is so critical to our mission as a board.”