Taylar Hall, chair of the Organization and Finance Committee, addresses the audience during Monday's meeting.
Photo Submitted by Austin Dixon.
While many students on campus may know the names and faces of the men in this organization, FAMU’s Collegiate 100 chapter serves a purpose that goes much deeper than mentoring young black men on campus. The chapter of Collegiate 100 at FAMU touches on numerous aspects of student life and around the Tallahassee community, ranging from marches with Andrew Gillum to participating and volunteering in other student-run activities around campus.
“They do a lot of events and on their Saturdays they take time out of their day to mentor at Griffin Middle School, which is super important because I’m from Tallahassee and I know this community very well,” Student Senate Organization and Finance committee chair Taylar Hall said. “It is also super important for those young men to see other black men in college and to see a different narrative from what they see in their everyday situations, which is what the Collegiate 100 does.”
The Las Vegas conference serves as a passageway for members in the organization to branch out to make connections with other like-minded individuals and explore further opportunities that they may have not experienced beyond the classroom.
The Collegiate 100, coming off two years of inactivity, has been rejuvenated this school year. It has already been nominated for a “chapter of the year” award.
“The Collegiate 100 since they got their foot back in the door and got the organization back to where it should be, has been influential on campus as they have followed many seminars and many civic engagement opportunities here at the university whether it’s partnering with SGA or putting up events by themselves,” Judicial and Rules Committee chairman Xavier McClinton said. “I think this organization helps impact and encourage those individuals to be civically engaged, politically knowledgeable and actively aware of what’s going on around them.”
Although there were some minor modifications to make sure this bill got passed, Senate President Rochard Moricette seemed determined to make sure the Collegiate 100 got the proper amount of money ($14,440) allocated, to fund their conference trip to Las Vegas.
“As the allocating body of student government, we have the sole authority over our A&S funds and tonight we funded student organizations, that will end up benefiting the university whether it’s in recruitment or representation for the school,” Moricette said.
“Our chapter here at FAMU is outstanding, and many members from this organization have high GPA’s and are very involved on campus,” Moricette added. “These men of Collegiate 100 are men who uphold their ability to lead and you can’t complain about that.”