The Student Government Association (SGA) will present State of The Black Student Summit on Tuesday September 27, in Lee Hall Auditorium to help stimulate the minds of Florida A&M’s students said organizers.
“The sole purpose of the event is to raise the cultural awareness of FAMU students,” said Phillip Agnew vice-president of the Student Government Association.
Agnew said that students will be given necessary life tools that will make them aware of economic, political, and social issues that have been a plague to the black community.
Students will also have the chance to talk one on one with numerous successful blacks that are dominant forces in the black community said Agnew.
Panelist attending the summit include Thomas W. Dortch Jr., member of 100 Black Men of America; AJ of BET’s “106& Park”; Cousin Jeff from BET’s “Comic View”; and Omar Tyree, author of Fly Girl, Diary of a Groupie, and For the Love of Money said Agnew.
There are other purposes for the summit according to Shevrin Jones, secretary of academic affairs of SGA.
Jones said that this is an opportunity for students to see SGA and FAMU in a different light.
“We don’t just throw cookouts,” said Jones.
At the summit students will be given a chance to hopefully come and learn skills that will help paint a picture of a brighter future said Agnew.
“This is a social event that will actually benefit our students and give them a chance to see our school as an university and not just another HBCU,” said Jones.
“We are trying to educate and enlighten our students about the opportunities that are available to them,” said Ramon Alexander president of SGA.
Alexander said that the summit will expose a positive FAMU and let outsiders receive better knowledge of the university.
“This is our responsibility to FAMU students. We are going above and beyond the call of duty to help our students move forward and gain important information,” Alexander said.
“One cannot get a clear understanding of the state of the black college student today in America without a global perspective on the way the world works,” said Interim President Dr. Castell V. Bryant.
Bryant said that even though advances in technology were fundamental to the future of the country, it is an advantage only to those who have access to this technology.
“Black college students have always been behind the technology learning curve and we remain so today,” she said.
Bryant said that the students of her day were enthralled by the technological advances of the color television, dazzled by the actual landing of a person on the moon and amazed by the unlimited potential of the advent of the computer.
In contrast now Dr. Bryant questions whether the power of technology could help overcome the historical inequities that have slowed the progress of African American and other minority students.
“Enrollment of black college freshmen is down nearly 10 per cent in the state university system. This is not acceptable in an era where the ability to achieve the American dream depends on ones ability to compete in a global economy driven by technological innovation and entrepreneurial drive.
“I hope that this conference will consider the implications of technology and its impact on the future of the black college student,” Bryant said.
Contact Glenn Childs at famuanlifestyles@hotmail.com