Time Machine: Black UT Looking at Me Pt. 4 (Spring 2006)

"The downfall was actually the lack of desire to innovate more than the redundancy, added to the rampant lack of accountability..."

Before I go into the oh so eventful spring, I just wanted to recap a few things I forgot happened in the fall.

My roommate from the fall was a friend that I met my freshman year. Because we knew each other pretty well and because we both knew of each others aspirations to go Greek, we roomed in order to keep our business to ourselves. It was an OBVIOUS fact to students back in the day that if you can't cover your tracks, you will never make it in. Sadly enough, my roommate didn't stay at UT until the spring. As a friend and roommate I always tried to get him on his grind, but he honestly was homesick... Austin can make you feel that way sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if I couldve done more, and I think the answer is yes... But its impossible to get others to take up their own responsibilities... My other friends would find this out later as I needed encouragement. Sadly, I had lost count of how many friends I had that didn't return to UT by this time... I've always wondered why our community ignores the blatant repitition of this unfortunate occurance.

Oddly enough, while the arrangement worked for me, I don't think it would've bode well for him... simply because the org he was interested in disapproved of their potentials being that cool with me. I recall a time where a dude got berated for coming with me to a social event... For haning out with an "Alpha"... I was definitely not one... At any rate, it was always strange to see what decisions people made to keep their college lives the way they wanted it to be.

For me, this meant getting another roommate who I knew wouldn't leak my business if I was lucky enough to disappear from the scene like all of those I mentioned in Spring 2005. It was actually a pretty good deal for him... He eventually would have the room to himself.
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Black and White did happen again, it ended up getting thrown together in a week, but it was a good and fun (and once again free) event. It was a testament to the fact that it's really not that hard to get this accomplished. People will use excuses all the time, the only valid one being priorities, however no excuse matters when somebody volunteers to do a job and it just doesn't get done.

This was the sentiment that some students felt about NSBL (Nat'l Student Business League). In 04-05 there was not a single meeting announced for the local chapter of the national organization. Subsequently there were no programs, no annual conference (that they used to have), no company field trips to other major cities, no membership, no elections, and thus no transtion to 05-06. At the end of my freshman year, there was an informal meeting for black business students held at Ruby's BBQ off of the drag. We discussed revamping and possibly changing the organization to fit the needs and goals of the current students available to work the organization. Unfortunately, a specific form of senioritis that targets non-academic interests that I like to call "Involvement Fatigue" would hit most of the upperclassmen.

Before the fall was over a small contingency of three students who were at that meeting started talks with the Undergraduate Programs Office at the Business School in order to re-establish and reorganize NSBL. WE three would eventually become the co-founders of BBSA, which replaced NSBL.

Also, in the fall, I was approached by a girl named "Cookie" about getting on an SG ticket for election. I didn't fully understand the politics in SG so I asked upperclassman advice... SG elections (at this point in time) were ran like most political elections in America, in that parties (or tickets) were formed in order to influence voters to make decisions based on names in the ticket. In the year prior, we had received our first Latino student body president in UT history. :is ticket pushed for diverse issues, better stewardship of money for students, tax-free text books, etc.; The platform of the winning compaign hasn't changed much over the years. The truth is, these elections were bought, not won. The minimum expected cost of a winning campaign was $10,000. Winning tickets were formed by finding popular community leaders interested in SG, and bringing them in on an already-paid-for campaign... Its a win-win because back then it was virtually impossible to win without a ticket, but then again the tickets couldn't win without the people on them. I later found that it was because of my large count of facebook friends (look at the Oct. 17th posting)that I was invited to be on the ticket.

Later on, Cookie would dissolve her campaign for whatever reason... but by this time I had changed my mind about running with her because I decided to run with Danielle Rugoff on the Impact ticket.... honestly, I felt that if somebody was going to use me to get the Black vote, she deserved it more... especially since there were other notables that I knew that were on the ticket with me.

ONE MORE ADDITION TO THE LAST BLOG>>>>>

I forgot about Kappaween... It was thrown at the Omni Hotel off of 7th street... it was a super baller ass party, no lie. I was definitely getting my underage drink on thanks to my favorite "TR3 KLUB" A. Lee.... shoutout homey... but how the party ended was what was sad. There was a fight at the end between some Kappas... there are alot of disturbing details about this fight if you hear it from somebody who saw it... it's some messy shit, some i talk to believe I can make a point by discussing it, but I dont think I need to give you details of a fight for you to understand that fights in public places, where non-blacks are watching blacks, involving pepper spray, or broken vases or lamps, are embarrassing.. if you were black you were getting kicked out of the hotel... Some say they lost faith in blacks coming together at that point, it seemed fruitless.

From previous knowledge, I heard hotels didn't want to grant any black frats a party because of a similar incident and that the Omni was taking a chance... IF THIS IS AT ALL TRUE, then after that there would be no chance... It sucks that at this point, the quality of what we would accept for parties was directly linked to our behavior at them... It's also eventually why Sky stopped letting black people throw parties there, because of all of the fights during the football afterparties... they would move to Spiro's.... how appropriate.

For Greeks... don't you hate when you have to end a party before you get to play your song??? me too...
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The Spring started with the MLK March (it's always on the Monday before classes). I didn't mention it last time, cuz I was caked up with my girlfriend at the time and just couldn't find the energy to get out of bed... I like to sleep in. But I went this year... it's not that spectacular of a march, I believe the one in SA to be much better. However, I think it is very important to remember those who came before us and honor them in some way... however you choose, but at least honor them... Most of the community believed so as well... we actually had a really good showing of students in this march, as evidenced in facebook pictures from that point in time. This is around the time that photo tagging became an option... so if you go to my profile, start at the first pick and go backwards from there, you can see a photographic history of the events in near-chronological order... yes, I rocked a curl in Fall 05 and chopped it for Non-Greek.

The next pictures you'll see would be from SBSLC that year... we had fun... Upon coming back tho... I would start approaching the "busiest" semester of my life. The Alphas threw their Ms. Black and Gold Scholarship Pageant, which was another pageant added back to the list (4 by each frat, and 3 from the sororities). This is one of Alpha's National programs, so for the chapter, this meant they had finally completed a full year's worth of programming. By some people's standards that would mean they were no longer neophytes (in mind), but in truth they were, but they wouldn't be for long...

While i was "BUSY"...

I had to do it... I disabled the facebook wall... Some might be reading this blog saying "Tony is messy"... but if that's the case, I'm a product of my environment... Ask anybody who's ever been "busy", if they didn't disable their facebook in some way what kind of comments they received... or better yet what kind of things people would say to them in public while you're just on the way to class... shit's annoying ya'll. First of all, whatever you think you know... you don't. Second of all, it's not your business. Third of all, nobody appreciates it when you try to make snide remarks about something that they are trying to keep a secret. If you were breaking up with your sig-other, and I walked up and said something to you, would you appreciate it? At the end of the day, Greeks will charge it to the game and get over it because it comes with the territory... but we never forget those people who do that to us. just an FYI

With me however, it wasn't really something I could hide... EVERYBODY knew i wanted to be an Alpha... they knew I wanted to be Greek at least... and they knew I didn't want to be a Kappa... so "assumption theory" placed me in the box of being an Alpha... It's hard to deny something when everybody is in your face about it. My defense mechanism was just to attend everybody's events (including Kappas), and know everybody's basic history (including Sororities)... That's a good idea for anybody who wants to be Greek tho, you should have respect for all of the organizations if you want to be in one of them... I respected them so much, I knew everybody's struts... Yes, I could hop, I could train, I could shimmy, I could do it all, and usually better than the average person who claimed those moves. DONT EVER DO THAT IN PUBLIC OF COURSE... but I had fun times acting a fool with friends back in the day... my wasn't the ignorance bliss.

But a I was saying, I couldn't hide it... if you were as involved and visible as me, and if your membership educator/intake chair/whetev-u-wanna-call-it tells you that you must remain as consistently active in your orgs as before, then everybody's gonna see when you all of a sudden you don't look happy... especially if you're losing weight... Alot of weight...
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At any rate, it was completely obvious to the 50 black students on the bus to the Big XII Conference (at Iowa State Univ.), that I was "busy". It didn't help that the mentor I spoke about before had lost his cell phone and basically used me as his personal assistant for the whole weekend. But let's talk about the Big XII Conference/Council on Black Student Government. It was founded over 30 years ago when we were the Big 8, UT joined in 2001. The Conference is held at a different university every year during February. Throughout there year, there are 3 other meetings where delegates from each member school will travel a selected location to meet and brainstorm about campus issues and how we can be resources to each other. This Council has ensured that other schools will have/keep their version of a multicultural information center. The Council also ensures that the Conference is thrown and meets certain quality standards. The Council has had a UT student on its Executive Board since I've been a student, our BSA has always done their best to affect not only our campus, but others as well. The Conference is actually scheduled to be at UT in the Spring... if only the student body knew how big of a deal this was, they would know what kind of opportunity they have to start correcting the current wrongs right now.
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We touched back down in Austin, and I had won Most Outstanding Junior in Big XII (because of my credit hours count). It was something to be proud of, but I was too 'busy' to even care really... and beyond that I semester full of work that I didn't know how I was going to complete...

It was going to be impossible to actively campaign for SG, be active in BSA so I could win the Presidency, help launch BBSA, still attend SAAB, and AACC (how I did miss it), be a student, and still find time to see my son??? craziness.

I would see my son... unfortunately he got sick a couple of times so I definitely went to see him, he also came to visit me in the X-Lounge one time, he was getting to know the ladies as well.

BSA became an automatic thing for me... I wanted that Presidency so bad that i did what I had to do... as far as I know, I didn't slack in my jobs on that exec board.... but if I had, everybody knew why and didn't feel the need to be messy about it.

AACC and SAAB just stopped being attended. i didn't have the time any longer... this was the first time I started to feel "involvement fatigue".
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SG Elections

Whoa... so if you don't know... campaigns last 2 weeks. They started on the week we left for Big XII, so I had to do double the work when I got back... phone interviews for endorsements, speaker circuits, tabling, emailing folks, going to 3 logistics meetings a week (and they were at night... I had places to be). But at the end of the two weeks, I was a new Liberal Arts Representative in SG. I didn't know what this meant, but I was just happy to be over this hump... the problem was now that I had to attend weekly Tuesday Night meetings... that sometimes didn't let out at a convenient enough time for me. I took the L on some absences in SG, which required me to be there EVERYNIGHT after i stopped being "busy"... this would lead to a ridiculously literally-busy junior year.
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BBSA

Of the three of us who started BBSA up, I was the mid-level worker... I did paperwork, proposals, and wrote emails for us in the beginning stages. We had 3 additional exec board members joined... The other two founders actually came to verbal blows before the organization was even fully launched... because of the severity of the arguments, the UPO requested that one of them (the instigator) step down. And then there were 5.

Everybody on this board knew I was "busy"... they never asked me to do work... I felt triflin' so I'd always ask what I could do to help, but they wouldn't ever give me anything. I think they didn't want me trying to do too much. My goal was only to make sure we got started, i never planned to run this organization. The person who stepped up to the job (the remaining founder) did everything in her power to secure us funds and corporate visits for the meetings we would have that year... unfortunately, our meetings became less organized later on when she became "busy" with Delta... Even still she deserves the majority of the credit for BBSA getting off of the ground.

Meanwhile the rest of the campus continued to do their thing... In BSA we had our Unity Week... In an attempt to empower the freshmen, they were allowed to chair the events. In the past, freshmen would be co-chairs so that they could learn from more experienced workers. A lot of the programs that happened that week are not even memorable on my standards (that's saying a lot considering everything else I remember). This wasn't a testament to their work ethic, it was actually a testament to the divisions that started to occur within that class. People on the Freshman Action Team were arguing because some wanted more power, some were doing any work, and some were both of those at once. Additionally, the actual BSA exec never corrected itself and the membership couldn't ignore it. At one point our advisor actually cancelled our meeting and forced us to have a communication workshop because he didn't like where we were headed... This is the organization I wanted to inherit.
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Relays

My freshman year, I actually skipped the college scene on Saturday... Unless you enjoy the natural ratchetness of coonery, DO NOT walk on 6th during relays... If a firecraker, gunshot, or a dumb person who feels like running is observed, a stampede happens... Then you lose your group, and can't contact them cuz phones didn't work downtown (too many devices trying to access the bandwidth)

This Relays, I expected to not be anywhere, but was definitely at the Alpha parties. The Thurs party was a fail, it was at Zero Degrees off of 7th, which was down the street from Red 7, where the Deltas were having their party. This was new, usually the Deltas held a happy hour on Friday, they changed it up this year and won... Thus they continued to do this after this year. I did however end up at Spiro's on Saturday for the Alpha party which was a great bounce back from Thursday.
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Probates

The SGRhos had one individual cross in Spring 2006. The uncanny fact about this presentation was that I and most others had no idea who the individual was before she was unveiled... Yay for discretion, because this had never been the case before or even after...

**Disclaimer: the following information isn't meant to slight anybody, it is merely used for historical reference to indicators of observations within the black community**

This Kappa probate mirrored the one from 2004, in that some potentials chose not to complete their "busy" work and thus did not become Kappas... this choice is called "dropping". This choice was pointed out both in 2004 and in 2006 (later in fall 2006 by the Alphas). The truth of the matter is that dropping is not all bad... if somebody had strong enough feelings to quit doing something, would you want them to finish it? If Obama suddenly felt he wasn't motivated to do a good job as President, would you like him to continue on campaigning? That choice should at least be respected for the fact that you don't want unsure individuals in your organization... but the reason it is shunned so much is because orgs want people to be sure about the decision to persue membership before you waste their time.

At the end of the day, if somebody quits it's because they had the opportunity to start in the first place... that's right, IT'S THE ORG'S FAULT. The same way Greeks can't guarantee access/membership, potentials can't guarantee they'll stay busy. People should be more sure... on both sides, that the verbal agreement they are entering into is genuine. If that sounds sketch too, then maybe that's logic trying to tell us something. . . . . . . . . . . (marinate on that).

There were 4 new Kappas on the stage that day. The fact that the community knew there were supposed to be more actually communicated a new mindset... however unpopular the decision, potentials have a choice to not finish. Before now, this wasn't unheard of, but why would someone advertise the increased occurence of something that they don't want happening... ? The more details you know about that line, the more these rhetorical questions will bug you.
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BSA Election

Quick and easy... this election was a masterpiece... I ended up winning President, and I got a great exec board. One of my duties as President was to serve as UT BSA's Constitutional Delegate to the Big XII Council. The first meeting that I was to attend was scheduled for April 21-22 (a Friday and Saturday). Unfortunately I couldn't make it because I had an internship interview in San Antonio (which is not a lie, but I still wouldn't have been able to go because I was busy). 2 other exec board members who were expected to go weren't able to either because they probated as new Deltas on the night of April 22 (There were 13 in total, including my BBSA co-founder).... Mrs. Burt didn't take too kindly to this because the 3 Deltas on the exec board from my freshman year pulled the same stunt in Spring 04. In 04 they told lies that were found to be disrespectful (death in family, etc...)... 06 didn't want to do the same exact thing, so they didn't offer alibis, they were just absent... This would end up being an issue in the next year for BSA...

I ended my busy work on the morning of Sunday April 23. I went home to San Antonio, went to church, came back to Austin and went to my first chapter meeting as an Alpha Man. This Sunday was also the date for the Black Essence Awards... unfortunately, I felt it was best for me to miss this event, just because I wasn't probated yet... I would be hiding out alot over the next week also... I would be working behind the scenes for HOPE WEEK.

I didn't talk about this last time, because for the most part it is consistent and hasn't held much of an effect on the communities standing... the only detriment it has ever caused is maybe a few hangovers/decisions that people would regret after the Saturday night party... and of course... the BBSA Election debacle.

The current President of BBSA was now a Delta and she was expected to run uncontested for the President position, however my frat brother who was a member, wanted to run for President as well. After inviting her to lunch, he informed her of his plans to run, and she got upset. For the record... I believe that competition in elections are necessary to test the strength of somebody's leadership... only problem is at UT, elections usually get rigged via consititutional loopholes. I had heard stories of how BSA Presidents in the past were decided by non-dues paid voters who just happened to be in the same Greek organization. (It didn't happen to me because no greeks ran against me, and because we revised the constitution to stop that BS earlier that year... I probably know more about the BSA constitution than anybody).

This story begins on Monday with one of the new Deltas approaching my LB (Falil) about the upcoming election set for Wednesday. She basically tells him, "if ya'll want to battle, we'll bring the war... we have more people on our line than you have in your chapter..." On Tuesday, the President asked me what my opinions were, and I told her the competition is good for elections... her LS was right there as well and said "Well there are more people who want to be Deltas than Alphas anyway, so you should win easy." This is where it goes bad... that night, while practicing for our upcoming Saturday probate, Falil and I mentioned the comments we heard to our prophytes... irritated by their blatant approach at not even hiding that they planned to rig/steal the election with their membership and potentials, my mentor decided he was going to get pamphlets printed for the election. Simultaneously, he decides he was going to call all of the orgs that they had co-sponsored with that year and have the show up to the meeting too. Now I have left these details out in an attempt to be non-biased... but especially since it was Hope Week, this was going to be a spectacle.

At the Wednesday election, the exec, the membership, and the advisors were there. Additionally there were non-business school members of Delta, and about 70 extra people from various orgs including but not limited to HBSA, ABSA, Beta Chi Theta, Gamma Beta, and more...

The elections were postponed by the President as a result... This day crippled the organization so badly. It was starting off so well, but the circus discouraged upperclassmen, underclassmen, current membership, and the advisors from believing the organization was moving towards progress (or for that matter doing any better than NSBL did). Looking back, I think the reaction might have been extreme... but if you know my mentor, and if you knew he was rigged out of a BSA election before, then you would understand why he went so gung-ho. We don't take too kindly to disrespect...

That Saturday, The Triumvirate: Sons of the Cold Front probated. By the end of the semester I went from roughly 230 lbs to 180 lbs. Big difference over 8 weeks, 6 days, 1 hour, 35 minutes, and 0 seconds... Directly afterward, we hosted the United Colors Jam party. I had a pow wow with some of my friends, with the kool-aid stains from the punch all over my hands... It was a long semester and it was over... i was just happy to have made it to the end in one piece. The next year is what I feared tho... President of BSA/Constitutional Delegate to the Big XII Council, (still unfortunately) Administrative VP of BBSA, Liberal Arts Representative to Student Government, and now the new Parliamentarian/Step Master/Secretary of Alpha Phi Alpha... lawd-ha-mur-cee... I hadn't even realized how much that was until I was at the end of the summer. But by then I was beginning to questioning how effective one could be if they were stretched so thin...

Next time Significance v. Substance