The Town Hall Meeting lead by the black student leaders began their meeting on Nov. 23 with 30 people in attendance in response to recent events on campus .
Shayla Owens, management junior, started the Town Hall Meeting by addressing the purpose behind the meeting. Owens cited different instances of discrimination around campus in the past few weeks prior to the meeting.
“We wanted to have this forum as a response to the white supremacy flyers, but also as a time to talk about any issues and discuss them,” Owens said.
Marco Torres, psychology senior, then addressed his “#NoHateMSU” campaign that he is starting up has high hopes for in the spring 2016 semester. Torres said he didn’t just want to make this campaign a “gay thing,” but a “minority college student thing.”
“We are creating a Facebook and Twitter account with a logo on it during finals week, we will post pictures and videos of students and faculty with their message on those social media accounts,” Torres said. “[We are trying to] have people come next semester to speak at events and also having a #NoHateMSU march that you can sign up for during Finals Frenzy.”
The floor was then open to the audience to speak or ask questions.
“We should have an African studies class,” Quin Lemons, history senior, said. “The only thing [MSU] has is the Old South type of history class, and that really just focuses on the slavery aspect.”
Jenifer Spenser, nursing junior, said, “I came from a community college to this bigger college, and [MSU] had no fun culture classes. [We] need more classes and awareness, some people see Hispanic and they only think Mexican. There is so much more to that.”
Cassi Dillard, psychology senior, said, “How can we help you, to help us, make this a long term thing?” Other students expressed the same concern of the discrimination issues not being helped long-term, and just being forgotten in a few weeks.
Students also asked about the ramifications for the people who posted the White Supremacy Rules posters, and the people who posted the discriminating pictures on Yeti.
Keith Lamb, vice president of student affairs and enrollment, said, “Every case is unique, [what happens to the person who committed the crime] depends on the conduct of the officer or hearing board [that hears the person’s case],” Lamb said.
The student leaders sitting up front wrapped up the hour long meeting by telling the audience that if there is a problem then to speak up and say something about it. The student leaders cannot do anything unless they are told something is going on.
“We are all here for one goal: to make MSU a better university,” Owens said.
Black Student Leader Town Hall Meeting
CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this article Keith Lamb’s last name was misspelled. It has now been corrected. The Wichitan regrets the error..