A Brief History of BU's Underrepresented Graduate Student Organization

Last month, the Boston University (BU) Underrepresented Graduate Student Organization (UGSO) -- the group I founded when I felt most isolated at BU -- did something amazing. My friends and colleagues spent close to 9 months organizing the first annual UGSO Academic Symposium with student talks and posters, technical and inclusion-focused keynotes, and addresses from administration and the Provost. To say that I'm proud is the biggest understatement of the year! I want to briefly explain why this means so much to me and my colleagues, and why it should probably mean so much to you and the future of Boston University. My intention is to chronicle UGSO’s origin story. Anything contentious is a matter of my opinion only. Full disclosure: I did choose to leave BU before completing my PhD in Biomedical Engineering, but I still look back fondly on my time there, despite some of the negative things that may have happened to me there. It is still my alma mater.

No Space for Me

In 2014, when I got to BU, I was the only Black PhD in the department of Biomedical Engineering, rumored to be the “richest” non-medical department on campus and the largest and highest ranking among engineering. I was also one of 4 black grad students (both masters and PhD) in the whole College of Engineering (1000+ total students). The lack of a space or organization for minority graduate students to gather socially or even academically felt like more than a simple oversight. There were premier student groups for other identities: Graduate Women in Science and Engineering (GWISE) had a robust advisory board and offered a host of academic, professional, and social events. The Student Association of Grad Engineers (SAGE) had an online BU survival guide, biweekly happy hours, and a ski trip! There were cultural groups for undergraduate students, but not many with programming particularly for graduate students. And while some non-STEM departments had Black or Latinx – focused groups, I asked myself “what is a research-focused grad student to do for community?

It felt like more than an oversight. Given the numbers and the environment, this felt intentional.

I try not to jump to conclusions, so I read up about the history of BU. I learned of its relationship to students of color and the Boston community (fraught), about previous attempts at creating a Black/Latinx grad student space on campus (ultimately non-sustainable), and about the hierarchies and structures that maintain the separation of students from different colleges/schools, preventing robust university-wide diversity policies. I candidly talked to faculty about their opinions on these matters. Ultimately, some (a handful) of those faculty left BU. So, my initial conclusion wasn't fully off-base: BU might not have been really made FOR me, or others like me, and the structures in place maintained a status quo: to keep your head down and do your work.

That is why UGSO needed to exist.

Becoming UGSO

In the fall of 2015, I started organizing with an online needs/wants survey for minority students (N=220 responses), a large-scale focus group (N=32 attendees), and informal social gatherings, relying on the funds of a benevolent faculty member friend and a suspiciously acquired email list. The organization name came from our collective desire to not brand ourselves as “minorities” but to emphasize that in a just world, we wouldn’t be underrepresented. Underrepresentation is a fact, not an identity. The group would welcome anyone who feels underrepresented within their department, specifically on the basis of race and ethnicity, but open to those who feel the same in regards to ability, sexuality, gender, or any other status. I created an email list, social media pages, and a webpage. I coordinated (and captained) intramural sports teams, co-hosted a mentoring event for undergrad organizations and a grant-writing event for grad students, and co-hosted a panel about impostor syndrome at the medical campus. It was really beautiful to work with other student leaders and share the joy of creating something together.

But the challenges built up: BU’s main campus and medical campus are about 2 miles apart, and the path traverses some of the busiest intersections of the city. Convincing groups from both campuses to come together was a legitimate concern. So was getting PhD students involved, the ones who have the most amount of time (4+ years) to sustainably engage in a social group, but the least likely to leave the lab out of fear that they’d fall behind (a real concern if you’re one of very few POC in the department, which many of us were). From 2015-2017, I spent time capacity building, networking, hosting happy hours, losing focus due to my own research priorities, completely giving up in the aftermath of two big deaths in my life, and ultimately spiraling downward due to a host of other technical, monetary, and capacity issues. I felt defeated, and although I had some wonderful faculty and admin support AND a handful of equally overstretched peers, it came down to us, the students, to bring it all together.

A New Era at BU

I’m not here to bash Boston University. Recently, key institutional changes in structure are making collaborations and interactions between the traditionally siloed colleges and schools of BU possible. To make a long story short, the hiring of a Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs and Vice Provost of Diversity and Inclusion made UGSO’s mission more in line with the university’s desires. In collaboration with the Dean of Students, a position typically focused on the needs of undergraduate students, we were able to host a fall Welcome event for graduate students of color – something I desperately sought my first few years. From those gatherings, both on the medical and main campuses, we were able to capacity-build again from the “lost years” and really begin connecting.

By Fall of 2018, after a second round of welcome events and the establishment of a small executive board, UGSO was finally ready to plan a premier event – the Academic Symposium. In December, a small but driven group of UGSO members, mostly in STEM, expressed a desire to celebrate the accomplishments of their peers and let the BU community know how valuable their work is. Fast forward to September 2019, and that event was a huge success. The Symposium had 84 registrations, 7 student lightning talks, and 15 poster presentations, 2 keynote speakers (Crystal Williams & Dr. Karen Warkentin), remarks from Dr. Kleinman (Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs), Dr. Brown (President of BU), and Dr. Waters (VP and Provost for Research). There were prizes for Best Talk ($200), Best Poster ($200), and People’s Choice variant of the two ($100 ea.). Even though I wasn’t able to attend myself, I got dozens of texts from friends, congratulating UGSO and informing me of how fantastic the event was.

Acknowledgements / shout-outs

I want to give a heartfelt thank you to all the people who have seen this dream and held on to it with me this whole time. To Dr. Tyrone Porter, the one constant throughout my time at BU, a true mentor, friend, and ally: I am eternally grateful to you. Dr. Daniel Kleinman validated my concerns and, just weeks into his post as Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs, relit my fire to do this work. Dean of Students Ken Elmore encouraged me and provided funding for professional-level welcome events. Katherine Kennedy provided space, mentorship, and wisdom from her experiences in the Howard Thurman Center. And to my research advisor, Dr. Barb Shinn-Cunningham, who let me completely sideline my research for a few months to make this a reality. Finally, to my student team, without whom NONE of this would be possible. You all are brilliant, driven, and worthy scholars.

2018-2019 E-Board and Annual Symposium Committee: Walter Suarez Becerra (2018 Co-President), Luis Ramirez (2019 President), Michael Rosario, Zach Coto, Jonique George, Demetrius Dimucci, Alan Pacheco, Delia Lopez (now PhD!), Nicole Berry, Gana Ndiaye, Olivia Britton, Tyrone Porter PhD, Anita Destefano PhD

Other BU Grad Student Organizers (2015-2018): Shironda White, Demarcus Briers, Jacqueline Retalis, Demetrius Dimucci, Dana Dunwoody, Breanna Chachere, Chrystel Murrieta, Jaime Andrade, Alicia Vélez Stewart, Caitlin Cariri, Genesis Guzman, Karen Chicas, Stella Oyalabu, Cassandra Pierre-Jerome, Andrew Kimble, Leticia Trujillo, Martine Randolph, Sernah Essien, David Fonesca

UGSO’s first Fall Welcome Event (2017) in collaboration with the Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs and Dean of Students

Keynote Presentation at the UGSO Academic Symposium (2019)

Medical Campus Fall Welcome for students of color, 2017 (Dorchester Brewing Company)

At the 2019 “Grad School is Trash for Students of Color” event, featuring Ciarra Smith from Harvard.

Jasmine KwasaOctober 26, 2019