LETTERS: Black community comes together

To the Editor: For example many times during the school year, The Daily Pennsylvanian will report on the grade point average of the BIG-C, yet it is seldom that it shows any of the services the BIG-C does for the Penn community and for the community at large. This letter is to inform the DP's audience of one of the many recent positive accomplishments of Penn's black community. This past weekend, leaders from the many different groups that comprise the black community of the University of Pennsylvania, gathered for a Black Student Leadership Retreat. First of all, it was no easy feat to get all of these individuals together at one place at the same time. Yet, through the efforts of many individuals, it happened. The second positive accomplishment that happened on this retreat was how so many different people with various opinions on everything, could -- without setting their personal opinions aside -- work together and strive for essentially the same goal of unifying the black community so we can make moves to improve the Penn experience not only for black students, but for the University in general. This mission has a wide range of ways to improve from increasing the black population from less than 6 percent of our school to how different organizations can support one another. At this retreat, a beautiful people with rich histories and diverse cultures were, if only for a few nights --as one. People with direct descendancy from Africa, Haitians, people from the Carribean, people from Philadelphian culture, people from the West Coast and many other backgrounds were represented. There were people who live in W.E.B. DuBois College House, the Quadrangle, off campus and all over the University. People of very diverse socio-economic backgrounds were there, as well as people of assorted ages, from 19-year-old students to 70-year-old faculty members. As a group like this came together, can just as diverse a group on a University wide level come together and work on improving our unity as a whole? I hope so, because that group is not the Undergraduate Assembly or University Council. Yet as for the retreat, many positive concrete gains were made, and there is no need for me to state all of it here because you will see it and you will feel it. Now I am sure many people will oppose the idea of black people coming together as they did, or as people oppose DuBois. Yet, the goals set forth will not only better the black community, but our entire University. The spirit running through Penn's black community at this time is bound to make positive change --keep your eyes and your mind open, and you will not miss it. Chaz Howard College '00