The Black Student Organization of CSU-Pueblo gives students of all ethnicities the chance to learn about African-American history and culture and share information with the rest of the university and the community.

Shenee Taylor, the president of the organization, said the organization started in 2008, and holds weekly meetings on Wednesdays at 4 p.m. in the Diversity Resource Center in the conference room in the Occhiato University Center.

 LaNecca Williams, the advisor of the organization, said she wanted to take over the organization after it started to fade.

“This used to be the Black Student Association. (There was a different) advisor at the time. Then it just kind of faded like organizations sometimes do. So in 2008, I wanted to start it back up again,” Williams said.

“A lot of students were graduating so we brought younger people in to be apart of it and put them in key positions so they would hang around for a while,” Williams said.

Williams said that even though the organization is for African-American students, students of all ethnicities are welcome to join and learn about the African American culture.

 “Our mission and our goal is to help empower the black people. But it doesn’t matter who that is, anybody can do that,” Williams said. “So membership is open to anybody, but our goal is to help empower and give our resources to the black students on campus.”

 “We seek students who are willing to learn, and come in and be open to new experiences, new ideas and different views,” Taylor said.

 Taylor said the Black Student Organization shows students how the African-American culture is a part of every culture.

 “The organization is geared to African-American students where we just study culture and history, then we take what we learn and we branch it out to the entire university,” Taylor said.

“We have projects and events like the Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast and ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ where we not only learn about our history, but how our history entangles everyones’ history, culture and way of life,” Taylor said.

Taylor said there are some requirements students need to have to join the organization.

 “We do ask the members have a 2.0 (grade point average), fill out a membership application, just to get to know you and we also have a membership fee which will pay for a t-shirt and membership card.” Taylor said.