Scene Depiction BSU

            The Black Student Union, also known as BSU, is one of the many organizations on campus. BSU’s purpose is to educate the university’s community about the contributions of African Americans. They also offer assistance and guidance to incoming black students and provide guidance for members of the Union. This organization hosts cultural, social, and athletic events all around campus in which anyone can come and participate. I chose BSU because I have attended a lot of their events around campus like the Apollo, Step Show,  Fall Feast, and Mo Betta Basketball Game just to name a few. I have been interested in joining this group but I just haven’t really looked into it. I enjoyed attending this group meeting and made several observations of my experience.

            I emailed the BSU advisor Rebecca Comage and asked her when their next meeting was. Their meetings are held every other Wednesday at 4:34 in room 230 of the student center. It is not a private meeting. Anyone is welcomed to come and join.  I was wondering why the meeting starts at such an odd time so I emailed the president Unique Young and she gave me an explanation. She said the reason why it starts at this time is because of a negative stereotype that started years ago. She told me that students felt like the population of the meeting would be late on purpose thinking that the meeting was going to start on time at 4:30. So instead of saying 4:30 pm the executive board changed the time to 4:34 just in case students came late.

Taken from http://teressehawkins.wix.com/blackstudentunion#!__gallery.
This is the room they always meet.
 

            I walked into the meeting and took a seat towards the back. It was still a few minutes early so there weren’t a lot of people in there yet. As people started to come in, they were all socializing with each other. Everyone sat in the front of the room. The meeting started a little late since they were waiting for people to come in. There are about one hundred people who are in this group, but there was only about twenty that attended the meeting on this day. The room was a decent size. It wasn’t too big or too small. The room was full of chairs. There had to be at least one hundred chairs in rows which did not get filled up. Everyone sat together towards the front of the room instead of being scattered around the room. They appeared to be a close group that gets along pretty well. There were five people who stayed in the front of the room facing everyone. Two of them were sitting down, and three of them were standing. These people were the President, Vice president, and three freshman representatives of this organization. The president and vice president were the ones sitting down and the three freshmen representatives were the ones standing. The representatives were the ones who were giving the presentation at this meeting, but the same people don’t give the presentations all the time. They switch it up. There are six freshman representatives in all in this organization.

            Waiting for the meeting to start, I was looking around the room and I expected that the members of this group would only be black since it is the Black Student Union. Even though the majority members of this group are, I noticed that there are a couple people who aren’t. This organization welcomes anybody.

Once the meeting started, we participated in an activity that involved everyone getting up out of their seats and interacting with each other. The president, vice president, and freshman representatives put a number on everyone’s back. These numbers were from one to five. Then, they gave everyone a cup with water in it. Most of the water was clear and some water had color.  Only four people had a cup of water that had some type of color. The activity was a demonstration of how fast sexually transmitted diseases can spread. Everyone joined in and socialized with each other.

During the STD activity.

During this activity, the president would call out a number between one and five. You go to that person who has that number on their back and mix your water with theirs. We did this until all five numbers were called. We took our seats and looked at our cup to see how much the water color has changed. Everyone’s water changed. This showed how fast an STD can spread and according to this activity, everyone in the room caught an STD. The four cups that had the color water were red, blue, green, and purple. These colors represented different types of sexual transmitted diseases like HIV, Herpes, Aids, and Gonorrhea. I participated in this activity and was one of the people spreading a disease so I received the green water cup which was gonorrhea. 

When the activity was done, we all sat back in our seats and talked about it. We went into the discussion after that. The freshman representatives stood at the front and gave the presentation. The three females stood at the microphone together while the president and vice president sat down beside them at a table. They were all casually dressed. The three girls had good connection with the group members and knew information about the topics. They asked questions and encouraged discussions. The representatives had everyone’s attention. These girls appeared to be outgoing and very sociable. Everyone contributed to the discussion with no problem. The room was not quiet. There was never a moment of silence.

Beginning the Open Activity

The first part of the discussion was the open discussion. They asked us questions before starting the actual presentation. These questions required an opinion. For an example, a question that was asked was why do you think people don’t use condoms and why do you think people are afraid to buy them. Members gave their opinion and moved on to the next question. The members were very into the discussion that about five people were all talking out loud at once that the people at the front had to quiet them down a bit.

When the open discussion was done, we got into the presentation. The presentation was titled Sexually Transmitted Generation. This presentation talked about different types of sexually transmitted diseases and infections and how they can be treated and if they can be treated. They showed pictures of some possible symptoms of diseases which were very graphic. People in this meeting had to turn away from the pictures because they were so disgusted by it. The president, Unique, seen the way some members were acting and told them they don’t need to act that way because we are adults. The members straightened up after she said that. This presentation went into a good amount of detail about the common diseases among college students and the best ways to avoid catching these from someone. Members shared their comments on all the slides as they were presented to us. There was no limit or boundary in these opinions. Everyone was very open about things and didn’t hold back saying anything. One of the members made a little announcement of how there are places on campus that give out free condoms so you don’t have to feel embarrassed about buying some in front of anyone.  

 

When I was observing the meeting, I noticed that they have a particular topic that they are going to talk about and have open discussions about it. These discussions are important and informative for us as students because they inform us of things we should know and be aware of. In this meeting, they discussed sexually transmitted diseases and allowed everyone in the room to contribute to the discussion.  Everyone in the room was able to contribute to the discussion with their thoughts and opinions. Mostly everyone in the room showed an interest in the topic. They were all engaged and contributing. They had the freedom to say anything and express their opinion. There were rarely anyone in the room who was on their phone or iPad or didn’t seem interested in the presentation and discussions. I noticed that they respected each other especially the leaders. The president and vice president, who were sitting down in the front facing everyone, were also contributing. I noticed that even though they were in charge, it seemed like they let others lead the discussions. The meeting lasted for an hour.

After an hour, the presentation came to an end. When the presentation was over, we talked about how important it is to use condoms and get tested. The representatives, president, and vice president closed this meeting with highly encouraging and recommending that everyone should get tested since lots of students walk around campus having an STD and not knowing that they do and that the testing on campus was going to be free. I looked at people’s faces when they said this and they looked like they are unsure if they want to do that.

The meeting had officially ended and members hung around chatting with each other for a little bit then started heading out the door. I got up from my seat and asked one of the representatives a question about the group that I was concerned about, then I headed towards the door to head back to my dorm.