Connor Smith: President of UNCW’s Black Student Union

This Campus Celebrity is involved in many organizations at UNCW, including being the President of UNCW’s Black Student Union. See what he is doing to help minorities on campus and better the institution as a whole.

You are the President of UNCW’s Black Student Union. Can you tell me what the Black Student Union is?

The Black Student Union exists to serve as the voice of African American students on campus, to celebrate African American culture and educate the campus on what’s going on within the culture. Along with making the campus aware of social issues that’s going on and cultural trends in the African American community. It’s an organization that’s open to everyone–we’re not exclusive.

What is the Upperman African American Cultural Center?

I am a peer mentor for the Upperman Center, which has been really great so far. It’s a service for African American students—but really, it can be a resource for anybody on campus. Educating people on the culture of African American students–It’s an education tool.

What do you do as a Peer Mentor for the Upperman Center?

I have been assigned one freshmen that I will work with for the course of the year. I may have one or two more freshmen added next semester, but I help connect them to different resources on campus. The peer mentors are being trained at the moment to know what fairs with career center and financial aid are going on. Making sure they’re getting help in classes by pointing them out to the writing center or learning center. Its like the “big brother” or “big sister” program—but more focused on the academic side of things. This is our first semester doing it. So far, its been going well.

What made you decide to become President of the Black Student Union?

I thought it was important to join the Black Student Union because when I came to UNCW, I wouldn’t meet too many people like me—in terms of race and ethnicity—I thought it was important to connect with people with a similar background and who looked like me. It was a great way for me to connect with upperclassmen too. I decided to step up to the leadership role because I had done some similar stuff in high school. [In high school] we had an organization that focused on Africana culture–It would be a step up from that. I was the Vice President last semester and was bumped up to Co-President with Michael Owens. Just some stresses of being an organizational leader, but I love what I do.

What issues do you deal with as President?

One of the biggest issues that a lot of MSOs (Multicultural Student Organizations—that’s what we call them) have dealt with is being taken seriously. Because we are at a PWI (predominately white institution) and a lot of people have interesting views on diversity and how much or little we should talk about diversity. And again, we face the issue of being seen as an exclusive club, which is unfortunate because the club is for anyone who wants to learn more about Africana culture.

• English major
• minority