Approximately 130 local college students gathered for the BUNITED Student Diversity Conference featuring keynote speaker, third-year Harvard Law School student Derecka Purnell, in the George Sherman Union.
The day-long event ran from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and included discussion sessions, around 20 workshops as well as Purnell’s final keynote speech.
Danielle Cadet, a member of the organizing committee, wrote in an email that the event should empower attendees to become more culturally conscious.
“The purpose of this student-led conference is to provide a safe environment to enhance attendees’ cultural competency by recognizing and understanding the social issues that prevail in our society,” Cadet wrote.
Cadet wrote that their mission is to promote collaboration and be a call to action.
“We seek to encourage individual growth, advance essential leadership skills, open individuals to new perspectives and empower students so that they become educated leaders who advocate for social justice and equality both on and off their college campuses,” Cadet wrote.
During the conference, Purnell began her keynote speech by citing a viral photo posted by House Speaker Paul Ryan with several Capitol Hill interns, which garnered criticism for being disproportionately white.
Purnell discussed African-American students’ progressiveness in the ‘50s and the formation of black student unions in the late ‘60s.
“This is what students did in the 1960s, what are we doing today?” Purnell asked the audience, likening the student activists back then to those of the present day. “What are we demanding from our universities today?”
Purnell recalled her time protesting in St. Louis, her hometown, after Michael Brown’s murder. She told attendees that the first time she was tear-gassed was that summer.
She returned back to the picture of Ryan to argue that American society likes using symbols of diversity, but often neglects to put them into a greater context.
“Would we feel better about a group of students from all different backgrounds, all different colors, implementing the policies that Paul Ryan wants to use against poor and black and brown people?” Purnell asked.
Many students said they enjoyed the conference and found Purnell’s speech thought-provoking.
Sabrina Hassan, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she attended the conference because the topics related to her life, and she wanted to find a support system.
“Often times, when I walk down [Commonwealth] Ave. I just don’t see people that look like me,” Hassan said. “It’s just being able to come to a space where I’m having those conversations that I feel like I’m not having in a classroom.”
Rachel Edwards, a freshman in CAS, said she views events like these as stimulators for social progress.
“This type of conference can be a catalyst for further action,” Edwards said. “Exposing people to these types of things can push them possibly to go to a march or lobby to their congressperson so I think it’s a really valuable starting point.”
Lornex Rono, a sophomore in CAS, said she liked how the event was focused around topics not typically brought up in the classroom.
“I feel like creating awareness is essential,” Rono said. “I think that the conference brings people together to have these conversations and people take these conversations outside the conference and they get to create awareness outside.”
Rono said Purnell’s keynote speech made her consider what diversity truly means at BU and how it helps the BU community.
“I think this conference just brings a new set of knowledge that you would not gain on a daily basis,” said Rono.
