Black Student Orientation is Friday night

The message behind Black Student Orientation is much more than the spoken word performances, stepping, music and food.

Black Student Orientation is a way to provide first-year African-American students with resources specifically tailored to their needs.

“It is also a direct response to the fact that black students do better in terms of their matriculation in graduation when they have a sense of belonging,” said Audrey McCluskey, director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.

“We wanted to at the very beginning give that sense of belonging. We want to assure them that Indiana University belongs to them and that the services and resources are theirs for the asking."

The orientation will showcase the support services available at IU, representatives from faith-based organizations, black-owned businesses and IU faculty and staff members. Elizabeth Mitchell will speak on the black history of Bloomington.

The event also features prizes, raffles, food and entertainment.

McCluskey said African-American students have told her they don’t feel that IU really addresses their needs. The goal of the orientation is to show students that the center can help them during their years in Bloomington.

“We want to erase the idea that black students come in with a deficit,” she said. “We want them to come in with a positive attitude about what they can achieve, not what they have to make up.”

The staff at the culture center wants new students to know that Neal-Marshall is their home away from home, said Sachiko Higgins-Kante, administrative assistant at the center.

“Many of them have never been away from home,” Higgins-Kante said. “They come to a new world – a world that they are not comfortable with. They have always been with the family. They have to make decisions on their own, and they don’t have the support structure they would otherwise have at home. We want them to know they aren’t alone.”