On Jan. 9, the second day of classes at FAMU for the Spring 2018 semester, a “mandatory Hazing Prevention Seminar” took place. Many students heard about the event by word of mouth and decided to go, while others learned about it through social media and Istrike.
However, students who were not connected to istrike or who do not follow specific social media pages had no idea about the seminar and missed it. For an event to be mandatory, there should have been more publicizing of it.
Not to discredit the work of the Office of Student Affairs, which did post the event on istrike, but why was iStirke the only place that the event was posted on from an official FAMU source? Why were there no emails or a post on FAMU Blackboard about it?
Surely if there was a storm warning FAMU would make it a priority to notify everyone, but a mandatory meeting it seems is not so mandatory. It is a problem for an event to be considered mandatory yet many people involved in campus organizations were not informed about it.
The FAMU chapter of the National Council of Negro Women changed its interest-meeting flyer because of the chaos caused by the anti-hazing seminar. “There was a lot of confusion with the prospective new members not knowing if it was required or not, considering that the seminar was announced and held only a few days before our interest meeting,” said Shanice Case, who is a member of NCNW. “It was decided that we would accept people even if they weren’t able to attend the seminar.”
James Tellis, a FAMU student, said, “I had to work when the seminar occurred, so I was unfortunately not able to go. The notice was too last minute. So now it’s just like what am I supposed to do if I want to join something? Will there be another seminar?”
Many students have been wondering the same thing. Will students be able to join organizations whether they attended the seminar or not? Most organizations have already been accepting members without any concern about the “Mandatory Hazing Seminar.”
The students need more – and better – information.