The Black Student Alliance elected its new executive board last night, naming first-year Tyler Scriven the new president for the 2002-2003 year.
"This is the best meeting turnout I've ever seen," outgoing President Emily Dibbons said. "Tyler is young and offers a lot of ambition, and I wish him a lot of luck."
Scriven, a College student, said his main goal was to strengthen involvement within the organization, and then branch out to the University community.
"I want to re-affirm the African-American community here, work to get a broader representation in the administration, and also re-establish relations between the University community and the Charlottesville community," he said.
Second-year College student Raven Carter, the new director of service, agreed. She said that despite the large number of service and mentor groups at the University, the number of black participants remains low.
"I want to work with students in the Charlottesville community, so these kids can have positive black role models," Carter said.
"We need to tell students that they can go to college, they can make a difference, that they can be someone," she added. "The sky's the limit."
Candidates generally exhorted the alliance to take a stronger role in the University community, lamenting its quiet voice in recent months.
"I think it's important to come together as a group," said second-year College student William Potter, the new director of issues, a position equivalent to a vice president.
"We have to tackle covert racism, and accusations made against us," Potter said.
Potter outlined some of the main problems facing blacks at the University today.
"We need to face issues like black students having lower GPAs, and have activities where we can discuss these issues with professors," Potter said.
Second-year Architecture student Matthew Punsalan, the new director of representatives, said the new executive board will attend to those issues effectively.
"The candidates were passionate tonight," Punsalan said. "There has been a lack of unity in the community and a lack of involvement in the BSA, and tonight really changed that."
Punsalan said he hopes he will see a similar passion in next year's class representatives.
"I'm looking for how passionate people are going to be for their class, that their thoughts just come from the heart," he added.
The executive board appoints two representatives from each class at the start of the academic year.
The BSA is a 33-year-old organization and serves as the umbrella group for black organizations at the University. Last semester, it sponsored a forum with the Griot Society about the AIDS epidemic in the black community.
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