Starting this year, the new Black Student Alliance (BSA) will be collaborating with the Marquette Academic and Cultural Club (MACC).
BSA and MACC will work closely on things like service projects. BSA will take over organizing Black History Month, which was previously overseen by the Student, Belonging and Equity Group.
“We started talking last year that there was a need for a space for just Black students to talk about things that are important to them, things that are impacting them and have that safe space,” Maria Stull, BSA and MACC sponsor, said. “We talked about joining it with MACC, but MACC is more multicultural and we really want to keep it that way so that all different types of students can be part of the club.”
Junior Micah Rodgers, MACC president, said MACC focuses on both academics and community.
“One time we had a whole meeting that was just about topics around our society and what was affecting us,” Rodgers said.
MACC has historically been predominantly Black, although it is open to all cultures.
“Because of the lack of representation with Black students, at first MACC was like a home for people of color to just express themselves, but we didn’t want to limit it to just people of color,” Rodgers said. “We wanted it to be for everybody.”
Junior Karah McDowell, BSA founder and president, said she created BSA to create a safe environment for African American students a place to go.
“I saw a lot of groups that were for other ethnicities around the school, and I never was able to find one that was kind of for me as an African American person,” she said.
MACC was established in 2010 by former principal Dr. Carl Hudson who passed away in 2021 while he was serving as both principal and MACC sponsor. Dr. Hudson was also formerly an administrator at Kirkwood High School and started the Black Academic and Culture Club during his time there.
“He was an amazing educator who really cared about students and really believed that any student could be better,” Stull said. “He really wanted to inspire them to reach their fullest potential, so we try to kind of keep that going through in his memory through the club.”
