Letter to the BWA
I sent an email to the Black Women of Achievement today regarding their hair show. Individual messages sent yesterday to former ASUO Executive Emily McLain and BWA Director Ashleigh Callier-Wells have not yet been responded to. Here’s the letter:
Dear Black Women of Achievement,
My name is CJ Ciaramella. I’m the editor-in-chief of the Oregon Commentator, a student publication of the University of Oregon. If you don’t mind, I had a couple of questions for you regarding the hair show for which you received $64,050 in student money.Could you describe what kind of event the hair show will be?
Is it the same thing as your Ethnic Hair Care Day, scheduled for Nov. 5, which will give students the opportunity “get educated on ways to handle that stringy, tangled, nappy hair that is either damaged by color, or dryness”?
How exactly is the $64,050 being used for the hair show?
Was the over-realized request for the hair show brought before the ASUO Senate by Ashleigh Callier-Wells?
If so, was Callier-Wells a student at the time?
I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m prying, but I’m really quite interested. This sounds like it will be a great hair show, considering its budget is bigger than the entire combined operating budgets of the Oregon Commentator, the Oregon Voice and the Student Insurgent. Thanks,
CJ Ciaramella
Editor-in-Chief, Oregon Commentator
August 8th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
$64,000 is more than my entire college education cost.
August 8th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Dear Oregon Commentator,
The Black Women of Achievement was recently founded to support black women and other underrepresented people in leadership, civic engagement, community service, and empowerment. We work hard to foster an environment of support and mutual colaboration within our membership.
It is imperative that student government support events that will advance our mission, not only for supporting an underrepresented community, but also fulfilling the University Diversity plan. When you attack the MCC, student unions, and BWA with these emails you promote division. Emily and Sun said we could get funding to bring in hair stylists from LA and Miami of we got them votes.
That’s why you won’t understand. When you say race card that makes me not have a safe space.
Diversity
Demand Hair show now!!
August 8th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Dear Oregon Commentator,
You are all white, and cannot possibly understand.
August 8th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Awesome.
August 8th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
….and I’d like to welcome Ms. Jones, today’s guest-stylist from Miami.
?
For the $64,000 smoke-in, I think we should bring in a guest-smoker…
Monica Bellucci is a good option. We could bring her in to guest-smoke, and we could also bring in support from Comp. Lit since she had a role in the Matrix movies, and we could also bring in Religious Studies since she was in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.
Hell, we could combine it all into one free forum in the amphitheater!
THE TRIFECTA!
Plus, she’s hot.
August 9th, 2008 at 9:04 am
The BWA girls have been looking a little nappy-headed lately………..
August 9th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Boooooooo
August 9th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
ooooh too soon, too soon!
August 9th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Wait…. Kari, Emily, San, and others promised BWA money for votes and then turn around and ask the University Administration not to fund the event? Is Ashleigh Callier-Wells reading this? Looks like the voice for underrepresented groups is the very one “marginalizing” them.
August 9th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
If it was a quid pro quo, money for votes, when does it start to become fraud or bribery of some sort and stop being a post-high school politics club? If it was a quid pro quo is Johnson Hall culpable for funding the thing and greasing the wheels of election bribery?
Of course, that all hinges on powerful IF’s
If it’s just a $64,000 snafu…well, I guess that’s to be expected?
Sad.
August 10th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Things were a lot better when Jacque Justice was around to maintain order in the Board Room…
August 10th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
emily and San are marginalization machines, emily just wants to be a politician so I hope she is punk my trashed in the media, she is a liar and hates bwa
August 10th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
How embarrassing…I think 20 or 30k of the amount was ear marked for a peformer, someone from BWA claimed to have a relative that was in contact with Jay-Z. The event was also supposed to take place at the Hult Center and draw attendees up and down the West Coast, which was where a ton of promotion expense came in at….but honestly, I had no clue about Wells not being a student or Mcclains letter….
August 10th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
What do the Senators who voted yes on this have to say for themselves?
August 10th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Well…I don’t remember how I voted, but at the time, the peer pressure for Nate Gulley was quite hard to resist.
Nor was the fact that, as Mr. Warnecke mentions, the BWA made it out to be a big concert.
August 11th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Emily Mclain and San Sun-owen were the worst exec’s ever
August 14th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Second only to Axelrod, but I would be quick to defend the “SunOwen as Worst Vice President” award any day. I do miss, however, her snacking on animal crackers during senate meetings while rubbing Billy Hatch’s upper thigh. The only time Hatch developed a hard-on from this massage was after SunOwen buzzed her hair one day and left only a dark-red skunk streak down the middle of her head.
Oh, those were the days.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
*sigh* Oh how I miss the days of Sara Hamilton.
August 15th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Emily Mclain is a mark and a trick