BSA Donates Apollo Night Revenues

The Black Students Association (BSA) announced plans Friday to donate the proceeds of its annual Apollo night to a Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) program—signaling renewed emphasis on collaboration between the two groups.

The $1,250 gift will go to the Summer Urban Program (SUP), BSA President Charles M. Moore ’04 said at Friday’s open meeting of the BSA, which drew more than 100 students.

SUP runs summer camps for youth in the Boston area.

Moore presented SUP head Shanna N. Ricketts ’03 and PBHA President Laura E. Clancy ’02-’03 with a check, saying he hoped the donation would inspire students to get involved with PBHA.

“We wanted to give the money to a group that we know would make a real difference,” Moore said.

The donation made a long-standing connection between the BSA and SUP official, students said.

Ricketts encouraged students present to consider working for the organization. PBHA has recently experienced a shortage of volunteers, and has been making increased efforts to enlist students in its various service programs.

“We think that what they’re doing is a worthwhile service to the community, as opposed to giving to some global organization,” said Moore.

“There’s a personal connection and a personal investment,” Clancy said. “It’s their peers serving kids in Cambridge and Boston, and these kids are also being served by other PBHA program during the year.”

The announcement of the SUP gift opened a meeting whose main topics of discussion were “What’s wrong with Harvard?” and “How can we make Harvard better?”

The BSA members brainstormed ways to improve life at Harvard for black students. The ideas most often suggested were to create a student center and improve pre-frosh weekend, either by coordinating minority outreach or organizing a distinct minority-oriented pre-frosh weekend.

—Staff writer Sarah M. Seltzer can be reached at sseltzer@fas.harvard.edu.