New UMOJA leadership seeks return to roots | Audio

Listen to excerpts from reporter Jared McDonald's interview with Ryan Jobson, UMOJA's new facilitating chairman, and Erica Holland, the group's new correspondence chairwoman.

UMOJA, the umbrella organization for 26 black student groups, elected its new board last week. The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with College sophomore and newly-elected planning and facilitating chairman Ryan Jobson and College sophomore and newly-elected correspondence chairwoman Erica Holland.

The Daily Pennsylvanian: Why did you run for the UMOJA board?

Ryan Jobson: A lot of times with umbrella groups like UMOJA, we can really be focused on our own issues as a board ... and really lose touch with our constituent groups. I'm really looking forward to reconnecting with our 26 groups - working collaboratively.

DP: How do you plan to get constituent groups to work together?

Erica Holland: Having more forums between our groups to start figuring out ... their main issues, so we can start advocating for them better when we have our political meetings with the administration on campus.

DP: What is UMOJA all about?

RJ: 1992 was the first time that UMOJA was proposed to exist. It was a way of getting student leaders in the black community on campus together ... toward the common goals of uplifting our community. We have a lot of groups in different segments. So really what UMOJA tries to do is to identify the common interests that we all have and see the way we can pool the resources that we have in those groups.

DP: What are your biggest goals for 2009?

RJ: In the past we've had very specific issues, like the DuBois renovations. Part of what we sacrificed in [focusing on specific issues] is that we weren't able to connect with our constituent groups at the same level. We do still have the same issues - faculty recruitment and the development of ethnic studies programs on campus - that we'll bring to the administration. But at the same time we really want to have a shift in focus, that we can really go back to the original purpose of UMOJA.

DP: Any plans to facilitate interaction with the greater Penn community?

RJ: Through the 5B, which is the five minority boards, we've been planning a lot of collaborative events, especially now that ICF, Intercultural Fund, is now active. Basically, we've been trying to get more collaborative events within each individual constituency's week.

DP: What are the biggest challenges for the year?

RJ: Getting back to the basics of what UMOJA is supposed to represent. That's essentially what we've strayed from in past years.

DP: What is the first step in doing that?

EH: I want our groups to feel comfortable coming to people on the board when they have problems, even if there are things that they don't want to present in the general body.

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