Boilerfest enlightens students
on diversity
By Ayall Sagi
Staff Writer
With less than one percentage of African American’s
on campus, the Black Cultural Center is trying to preserve heritage
and inform students about diversity.
In order to accomplish this, the Black Cultural
Center will be sponsoring its annual Boilerfest from 4 to 6 p.m. on
Thursday in the Black Cultural Center parking lot.
The new student orientation festival will feature
food and live entertainment by the BCC Ensemble, and will include door
prizes and an informal gathering of campus leaders, student organizations
and University officials.
Boilerfest program adviser and graduate student
Earnest Wallace hopes that the festival can help raise cultural awareness
among students.
"One of the things I have a problem with at Purdue
is that everywhere you go they say there is diversity, but Purdue has
a misconception on what diversity is," he said. "Purdue thinks
that if you bring in international students and set up some minority
clubs it is diverse, but it's not."
Wallace says that the gathering is not just for
African Americans, although it does focus on the representation of African
American organizations. "Lots of Caucasian and Asian students come out
as well," he said. "Everyone comes out and enjoys the event."
Some of the organizations attending include Division
of Financial Aids, Dean of Students, Purdue Athletics, The Wellness
Office, Study Abroad, African American Studies and a few Greek organizations.
Wallace thinks that Boilerfest this year will focus
on finding out more about what Purdue offers. He said that during the
gathering students will be able to familiarize themselves with campus
organizations, and those organizations will be able to recruit students.
Wallace has high hopes for the gathering. "Boilerfest
is a way to introduce new minority freshmen into the Purdue atmosphere
and so new minority students won't feel alienated," he said.
Kia Mackey, a senior in the School of Liberal Arts,
has gone to the festival for the past two years and has seen a great
deal of improvement. She plans to go this year and is expecting to see
old friends and new organizations. She also wants to see what the administration
and staff have to offer. "I feel that the BCC is growing and becoming
more versatile," she said.
"I think if you want to meet people or get to know
different things about Purdue, and don’t want to be closed up and
limited, you should go and have an open mind," said Mackey.
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