Note: The following essay was crafted by Mike Daniels, interim director of Kent State University’s Student Multicultural Center. The Student Multicultural Center provides counseling, mentoring, financial guidance and other support necessary for educational access and retention.    ------------- Is this America? Where popular culture is largely represented by Black culture? Where musicians, artists, and athletes can be praised and celebrated for their talents, but criminalized for their skin color? Where the beginning of one month can start with people of every ra...

The Mid-American Conference (MAC) announced Wednesday a historic esports venture with a newly created independent esports conference – Esports Collegiate Conference – to facilitate and foster high-quality gaming competition among collegiate esports teams. Kent State University is among the 12 founding members of the new esports conference.  The Esports Collegiate Conference (Esports Collegiate or ESC) will provide structure, scheduling and championship opportunities for its membership, with competition beginning with the 2020-2021 academic year. Esports Collegiate is an independent ent...

The nation watched in anger and shock as a white police officer in Minneapolis nonchalantly knelt on the neck of George Floyd, an African American man, who had been accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill until he uttered the words “I can’t breathe.” Floyd’s brief encounter with the police, which was recorded and subsequently disseminated to the world, was the latest in numerous encounters in which unarmed African American men and women have died at the hands of police or other citizens taking the law into their own hands. Floyd’s death set off national, even global, outrag...

Note: The following essay was crafted by Tayjua Hines, president of Black United Students (BUS), a student organization at Kent State University. Founded in 1968, the underlying philosophy of BUS is to serve and unify all Black students at Kent State by addressing their needs.  ------------- As a community, Black citizens have seen more than enough of our own treated unjustly, brutalized and murdered by law enforcement. For me, my first realization of the value that America places on its Black citizens was when Trayvon Martin was killed by police, how he received no justic...

Note: The following essay was crafted by Amoaba Gooden, Ph.D., Kent State University’s interim vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, and chair and associate professor in the Department of Pan-African Studies. Created in 2009, the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion leads the university’s efforts to increase diverse representation, create and sustain equity of opportunity and intentionally foster an inclusive environment. The Department of Pan-African Studies focuses on the study of communities of people of African descent both on the continent of Africa a...

This summer, Kent State of Wellness is offering members of the Kent State University community the opportunity to engage in meditation via virtual platforms. The 30-minute meditation sessions, which are free to join, will take place at noon every Tuesday and Thursday through Aug. 20. For more information, visit the Kent State of Wellness meditation website. Kent State of Wellness also is offering free Koru Mindfulness classes online for Kent State community members. This is a four-week, 75-minute class that teaches evidence-based mindfulness classes to help you become more rested and l...