The Black Student Union has published its first official website in more than five years to give prospective and current students of color insight into minority life at GW.
The website, which is accessible through the University’s Office of Student Life page, launched Sunday. The new website will offer students interested in learning more about Black students’ presence on campus an up-to-date look into the student organization’s activities, members said.
The website is broken down between BSU leadership, press releases, a directory of Black student organizations and information about the the Rethinking.DC Project, a research scholarship cohort that aims to grasp the Metropolitan Police Department’s operations, reduce youth arrests and move youth away from the criminal justice system.
Senior Devon Bradley, the president of BSU, said the executive board began working on the website in last August, but students pushed the project off for a couple months as schedules picked up. He said when he was a prospective student researching GW, he struggled to find current information about the University’s Black student life.
He added that the website’s creation fits in with the organization’s goal last year to increase BSU’s presence on campus and student engagement.
“As a Black student, or even as the president of BSU, it makes me happy to know that Black prospective students now have something to look at, something that shows the Black community,” Bradley said. “They can go to a page and see all the Black organizations.”
BSU’s website was last updated for the 2014-15 academic year, according to the organization’s website.
Sophomore Brianna Hawley, a graphic design student who worked on the website, said the website took more than a month to complete.
“My favorite part about the site is definitely the cabinet and executive board pages just because each member of the BSU gets to have their own tab and a little bio and just a picture of ourselves,” Hawley said. “It’s nice to have representation of who are the active members that year in case you want to contact anyone or have personal questions for specific roles that are going on in these issues. That is definitely my favorite part.”