The first president of the Black Student Alliance, Dr. Richard Thomas, spoke at the group's Welcome Reception on Tuesday.

Thomas is a history professor at MSU, who also did his undergraduate studies here. He started the alliance with others in 1969.

"He always says that history is the art of storytelling," said Geneva Thomas, president of BSA. "He's a gem and he should be treated as such. He's our elder and we admire him immensely."

Richard Thomas spoke about the history of the Black Student Alliance at the reception, and encouraged the crowd to apply his generation's positive attitude toward their daily lives as black college students.

"We were the ones who made it possible to bring black professors to campus," Richard Thomas said. "We were the ones to protest for the first black history classes on campus."

He said he thinks many improvements have been made but more still need to occur.

"I don't want to hear any whining about what you can't do here," he said. "We had to make it happen."

BSA, along with the Office of Racial Ethnic Student Affairs, sponsored the Tuesday evening event, which hosted about 2,000 people, said Tammye L. Coles, coordinator of African American student affairs.

The crowd participated in a resource fair, welcome speeches, dance performances and a social complete with music, food, and dancing.

"Our endeavor is to bring the whole village here and I think we've got half the village here tonight," Rodney Patterson, director of Racial Ethnic Student Affairs, said to the crowd.

The event was to open the new year and to welcome new MSU students.

"This is a predominately white institution and students not in the majority sometimes experience things in terms of adjustment," said Lee June, vice president of Student Affairs and Services. "These events kind of help us to say to students, 'you're important.'"

Clubs including MRULE, Same Gender Loving Students of Color, International Students and Allies, Delta Sigma Theta sorority, the African American Celebratory, and others all set up booths at the event.

Issues the BSA will focus on this year include encouraging black students to vote, raising awareness, building community within MSU faculty, staff, students and area residents, highlighting the importance of hip-hop, and retention building for black students at MSU.

Currently about half of black students enrolled at MSU graduate, Geneva Thomas said.

"Retention is going to be a problem we need to definitely fix nationwide," she said. "We have to stick together. If I don't see my friend in class and they should be there with me, you better believe I'll be knocking on their door."

The November election is also on the minds of black students, and some feel as though events occurring in the last presidential election cause even more reason for concern.

Jessica Shamberger, an English junior and a member of a new campus group called Spartan Vote, hopes to educate people on the candidates so they can make sound judgments.

"It was a right denied to us for so long," she said. "As minorities it's important for us to feel we have the ability to make a change."

This year, BSA will be hosting a theatrical Black Power Rally that will also deal heavily with stereotypes, and the rally will showcase a surprise speaker that both black women and hip-hop fans will love, Geneva Thomas said.