By Joy Moton | Staff Writer
Just in time for NCAA National Signing Day, the department of multicultural affairs hosted its own Multicultural Affairs Signing Day. Students visited the multicultural affairs suite and signed letters of intent to either commit or recommit to the multicultural organizations of their choice.
“This is just an opportunity to heighten the awareness of all multicultural organizations and activities that we have available,” said Leslie Moore, coordinator for the department of multicultural affairs.
The idea for the event came from Geoffrey Griggs, assistant director of multicultural affairs.
“MA Signing Day was thought of while I was getting annoyed with my Bleacher Report App updating me with notifications on the top commitments in high school football choosing what places they would commit to for college,” Griggs wrote in an email to the Lariat. “So, after being frustrated with my phone battery on life support from all the notifications, I thought, ‘Why should high school athletes get all the fun?’”
As a result, Multicultural Affairs Signing Day was born. The organization with the most commitments and recommitments won a gift card, and individuals with the most creative commitments won a prize as well.
“It’s important to commit to these organizations so that you can feel like you have a support system while here on this predominantly white campus,” said Annette Christie, an ambassador for the department of multicultural affairs.
The event also gave students a chance to take a look around the new multicultural affairs office that the department moved to in the Bill Daniel Student Center in November 2016.
“We’ve been trying to get this space for 25 years, so it’s a really big deal that we’re finally here all together as the department of multicultural affairs,” Christie said.
The event was a success, with the department running out of food after 10 minutes and Twitter being flooded with pictures and videos of newly recruited and veteran members of organizations.
“We’ve had a lot of students come and recommit and are really excited about doing good work this semester,” Christie said.
This is the first of many events that Multicultural Affairs will host throughout the course of Black History Month in February.
At 7 p.m. on Monday in Barfield Drawing Room, Multicultural Affairs will have the Inaugural Black Student Union Celebration, a meeting for students to discuss black community on Baylor’s campus and ways to work together to address concerns. For more updates on multicultural affairs events, follow @BaylorMA on Twitter.
