Black Student Organization Mission:
The purpose of Bard's Black Student Organization is to foster a sense of community among Bard's students of African descent, while promoting social interaction with the wider Bard College Community.
Our mission is to stimulate members of the Bard College community to explore intellectual, political, culture and social issues that are of importance to the Black community and America as a whole. Black history and current race issues are articulated through dialogue, cultural performances, music lectures, and art. Race and politics are often recognized on our campus through our academic curriculum. However, we as an organization feel that it is necessary to find creative ways to take that experience beyond the classroom bringing the links between race, politics, academics, and social life to fruition in the hopes awareness will spark action and ignite change in our communities.
Conference Mission Statement & Goals:
As students of color we believe we have a responsibility to our communities and ourselves to grow as civic minded participants. Many of the issues and concerns raised within meeting times, or in classrooms confront issues of racial identification as people of color. Discussions around cultural and racial identification are often raised due to a variety of reasons; some include course material, the racial makeup of the class and the day-to-day interactions with students that come from other cultural backgrounds.
Therefore, this year's conference will tackle issues surrounding the question of identifying as a Black person in today's society. The goals of this conference are to critically analyze the different definitions of Blackness that exist and how they play out on our campus. We plan to discuss the current political climate that exists on many of our college campuses and current events that affect us as students of color. The second goal of this conference is to begin to foster connections between the Black Student Organizations in hopes of creating innovative strategies for strengthening solidarity on our campuses and in our communities.