The first week of February at Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB) began with gusts of rain and wind, dampening the grounds intended to host Otter Thursday. However, for Victoria Mills, program coordinator of the Helen Rucker Center for Black Excellence, ill-timed weather wasn’t going to rain on her parade.
Several months in the making, Mills and a team of students, staff and off-campus organizations worked to coordinate the university’s most involved Black History Month event to date. At notice of the ongoing rain, Mills and her team worked to transform the lobby of the Otter Student Union into a space fit for celebration.
The line for screen-printed shirts reading “Black Minds Matter” was consistently full, extending to the queue for Burger 831. Cups of free banana pudding offered at the event flew off the shelves, enjoyed by nearly a hundred students cycling in and out of the event. Surveying the handful of campus and community organizations tabling, the event was a labor of love for Mills.
“I’m holding back happy tears,” she said. “Just seeing everything coming together– it feels like this is the first time I’ve seen a bigger event for Black History Month on this campus.”
A sentiment shared by fourth-year psychology major and vice president of Black Students United (BSU), Amaya Watson, who has been advocating for CSUMB to hold more events that center Black students since 2022.
“This is what we’ve been working for. This is what we’ve been hoping for,” said Watson. “All of these changes are new and recent, but it means that we are growing to a more beautiful and better future. So long as we stay together as a community, it’s going to be wonderful.”
Outside of tabling for the BSU, Watson’s favorite part of the event was watching the Grant Drum Line perform alongside their majorette dancers.
“They are Black, they are beautiful, they are people of color and they came and they showed out,” she said.
James Van Buren, known as “Mr. V” is the director of Grant Drum Line of Sacramento and takes pride in his percussionists’ ability to be able to replicate the energy of historically Black college and university drum lines.
“Not everybody can do that,” Van Buren said.
From performing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in 2015 to playing Times Square, Paris and South Africa, Van Buren and his drumline have earned recognition worldwide. Mills knew she wanted them for this event.
“Type in ‘Black drum line California,’ and boom, we come up,” said Van Buren.
Among the tables at the event was CSUMB’s Personal Growth and Counseling Center, where pre-doctoral counselor intern Liyah Morgan, a member of this event’s planning committee, aimed to destigmatize mental health amenities for the growing population of students of color on campus.
“This year was the highest enrollment of Black students in recent years, so we’re really trying to make sure people feel welcome on campus,” said Morgan.
Watson was overjoyed with the turnout and hopes the excitement will encourage more students to visit CSUMB’s affinity centers.
“Please stop by the Helen Rucker Center. We welcome all peoples of color and non-people of color into our space because we want you to come, experience and be with us,” Watson said. “We are a beautiful, bright community that just wants to be welcomed and have fun–that’s all.”
