Black student leaders to gather this weekend for student government conference

Nearly 700 students from 40 colleges nationwide are in Norman this weekend to attend an annual conference promoting black leadership on college campuses.

The 35th annual Big 12 Conference on Black Student Government is kicking off today at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center, 2501 Conference Dr., event chairman Joshua Colbert said.

Black student leaders from all over the country will be developing their leadership skills, networking with potential employers and getting to know one another over this three-day conference.

Source: Big 12 Conference on Black Student Government 2012 website

This is OU’s fourth year out of the 35 years to host the event, Colbert said.

Each year the conference is hosted by an institute member of the Big 12 Council, according to the event’s website. The Big 12 Council has been the government body for all black student unions since 1977.

Originally, the goal was to unite blacks facing issues on predominantly white college campuses, Colbert said. Activities at the conference helped students develop as leaders and learn solutions to problems they were facing.

Distinguished professors, military officials, business professionals and sports analysts will be highlighted speakers at the event, Colbert said.

OU Professor Emeritus of human relations George Henderson will speak at the event. Henderson was the third full-time black faculty member at OU, and he also founded the OU Department of Human Relations.

“The conference is an opportunity for students to understand that they are creating history, and it is important that they create positive histories, and I believe that they will,” Henderson said.

Henderson will speak about the challenge, responsibility and possibility of making college universities more culturally inclusive, he said.

“I hope that students grow to become better leaders and not just use the conference as an opportunity to talk, but use it as a means of gaining some insights and ideas so they can go back to their institutions and implement those things,” Henderson said.

Graduate schools, Verizon Wireless and the U.S. Marines are just a few of the organizations recruiting at the conference career fair Friday, Colbert said.

“Overall, we steered a bit different from the past conferences, and we did that purposely,” Colbert said. “We wanted to put this at the OU level.”

The Big 12 Council will award several scholarships to participating students, he said.

The conference is not made up of only Big 12 schools, Colbert said. He and his committee are going to approach the Big 12 Committee this weekend to propose eliminating Big 12 from the title to show its inclusivity.

“We want to extend it further out and not limiting our market strictly to Big 12 schools and surrounding areas,” Colbert said.

Part of the conference will be Stompdown: The Redemption, which features step dance performances by eight stomp teams from schools in the conference, Colbert said.

“We have come up with a pretty extravagant weekend,” Colbert said. “Through all of our questions and struggles, I think we have put together a great event and a great program for everyone in the OU community to enjoy and be proud of.”

Rachael Cervenka

Rachael is a former staff member of The Oklahoma Daily who worked as Staff Reporter.