This past week, the Black Laurentian Initiative (BLI) members Mabelin Garcia De La Rose ’22, Iman Maani ’22, Lucky Amoding Junior ’23, Titilayo Aluko ’25, Kelly Daphness ’23, Colby Lauria ’25, Penda Sarr ’24, Rafael Escoto ’24, and Fousani Hamidou ’24, spent their time in New Orleans, Louisiana, attending an American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Conference on Diversity, Equity, and Student Success.
They reunited with former President of the BLI Hamidou Sylla ’20 and former member Michael Paulino ’20. Many higher education professionals believe that recognizing and overcoming persistent inequalities is among the most significant challenges colleges and universities are facing right now. Building capacity for institutional transformation is also a significant challenge as well.
The theme of the 2022 Conference on Diversity, Equity, and Student Success signifies the amount of work ahead that needs to be accomplished. And it will take less talking and more action in order to achieve diversity, equity, and student success within our respective colleges and universities. The purpose of the AAC&U Conference was to explore the experience of institutional and community participants from more than 100 colleges and universities, spanning from the East coast to the West coast, while identifying barriers that are hindering our progress; and at the same time encouraging discussions on the privileges, biases, and inconsistencies within the human hierarchy that are embedded within our current systems, structures and policies.
“It was a great opportunity to meet other young people at other institutions that were doing similar work as the BLI when it comes to equality, justice, and inclusion,” said Vice-President of the BLI Penda Sarr. A lot of networking took place during the conference.
St. Lawrence students met students from other universities, such as Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), who developed an Equity, Justice, and Inclusion course program that dives deep into different cultures as well as worldly, local, and national problems and how they affect low-income communities and environments. The program took over ten years to complete and implement.
“It serves a lot of motivation just to know that there are other institutions dedicated to the same work that we, the BLI, are doing, and it inspires us to not give up and keep pushing because eventually, we will see the fruits of our labor,” said Sarr.
“It feels good to be recognized for your work and to see other young people doing the same is really inspiring and pushing the BLI to continue DEI work,” said Rafael Escoto. None of this would be possible without our BLI members and the massive amount of work from our President Diamond McAllister ’22 and our Treasurer Marteas Johnson ’23.