He shoots… and he scores! The Men in Color Ball is Life Weekend aimed to raise money to commemorate Luke Harvey on St. Lawrence University’s campus. The event was a slam dunk!
At the tournament, there was a 3 vs. 3 contest, a dunk contest, and a 3-point contest. There was also a raffle to win a chance to pie Rance Davis, associate dean of student life. Davis serves as the advisor for the Men in Color organization. “MIC is a brotherhood of men from all walks of life to acknowledge and learn from each other,” stated Davis.
“MIC began in 2009 and was designed to have men in color, which we believe are all men that are interested in promoting diversity and working together: a place where men can come together and talk about their issues and concerns and be respectful of others and engage in a positive way with all members of the community,” stated Davis. “I’ve been here since 1991, and we have always had some sort of men’s group that would come together and talk,” he added.
Interpretations of organizations and clubs on St Lawrence’s campus has in the past easily been misconstrued from the outside. Davis emphasized that the club is open to all men. “We have students of European descent, African-American students, and Asian students,” stressed Davis. He explained that open lines of communication between different types of people is extremely important and necessary, especially on a college campus.
Ex Vice-President Chyron Brown-Wallace ’17 attended the tournament as a first-time alumnus. “It was cool to go to the basketball tournament because it allowed me to see the progress of the group as an alumnus of St. Lawrence, as compared to when I was one of the people in charge of running it,” he said.
“The effect that the organization has had is that it really opens your eyes to the fact that many people have different views of the world. That’s what we were about: multiple races and cultures in one room trying to understand each other. It is important that people on campus don’t think it’s just a ‘black club,’ which is what we as a club have heard and been labelled before,” emphasized Brown-Wallace.