This past week was dedicated to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, but it seems that not many on campus knew about it.
“I think I heard about HBCU Week this past academic school year,” FAMU student Grace Blatch said. “But this year I for certain heard nothing about it.”
The federally designated HBCU Week has been taking place for more than four decades. It allows for networking between thousands of African-American students and institutions.
This week was originally designated and created by President Jimmy Carter.
President Biden declared Sept. 5-11 as HBCU Week.
The purpose of the week is to network, but due to the pandemic the conference was held virtually for the second year in a row.
The conference is planned under the leadership of the White House Initiative on HBCUs.
The focus was to provide and share innovations between multiple HBCUs and to connect national federal agencies, private-sector employers and increase the quality of education to HBCU students.
For the second year in a row, events were held through webinars, Zoom calls, and other supplementary needs to encourage engagement during the week.
Each day was filled with more than five events, but many students didn’t attend because they didn’t even know about it.
Third year FAMU transfer student Deborah Ulysse said FAMU should have promoted the week better.
“As a new student I feel like FAMU does a good job of sending out the information we need as students,” Ulysse said. “As long as you check your emails you will find the information.”
Third-year FAMU student Kiara Scott said she feels the exact opposite.
“FAMU sends out too many emails for me to even focus on just one event,” Scott said. “It’s to the point where it gets overwhelming, and I would rather just not check my email.”
Scott said that during HBCU Week, she received an email inviting her to an event, but by being told the day of there wasn’t enough time to participate.
While there are mixed opinions about how FAMU promotes events, students say FAMU informs but just not in an efficient way. Maybe new ways can be created to insure more access.