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I arrived at Towson in 1984, graduated in 1987, and I would say the best four years of my life. Enjoyed Towson immensely, enjoying all of these people immensely. Unfortunately, a lot of us are not here today because of COVID. But I look forward to

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coming back for Homecoming. We did a lot from '83 -- from '83 to '87. But for me, starting in 1984, and I pledged Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. We were chartered in 1982. We were born out of what we call our [theta contract] with

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UMBC. And folks came over and chartered the chapter in 1982. So I was the second line, the second line of Kappa Alpha Psi in 1984. So we got here

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in 1984, um active in the fraternity that we became very active in creating with 1985, I think, the coalition of Black letter organizations. At the time in the 80s, in the mid-80s, sort of in the early 90s, it was a turbulent time. We're dealing with

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apartheid, we're trying to fight apartheid, other disparities we were fighting against.You know, we're coming out of the Reagan years and the Reagan years weren't particularly kind to African Americans. So that was a challenge. Uh so it was a terrible

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time for us. But there were good deans, Black and white, on campus that urged us to have our voice. So we created a coalition of Black letter organizations, which is now today the National Pan- Hellenic Council, but we had the coalition of Black letters organization to

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the Iotas at the time. They were part of the Panhellenic Council. We wanted to ensure that every organization was represented through the coalition. We created that. During that same four-year period chapter back to campus as well. Phyllis is over there somewhere. Phyllis actually came back to Towson -- she was here in the '70s -- came back to Towson

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and encouraged us to create a Black Student Union. We worked with Dr. Camille Clay to create the [student back] weekend. So where we recruited African-American high schoolers from Baltimore that come stayed with a member the Towson Black Student Union community

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for a weekend. We always did it on Homecoming weekend to try to encourage greater Black enrollment. Working with Angel Jackson in Admissions three African American enrollment at the university. So we did that, My little dear, I know I'm missing something, but we were very active.

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I got active in the Black Student Union in 1986 and '87. We were the first -- I know some of my predecessors are going to challenge me -- we were the first to actually have two rooms for Homecoming. We had EU [Experience Unlimited] perform, you know, in one ballroom, we had another group,

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a DJ, performed in another room. And it was the impetus for us recognizing that we had some social power at Towson, which led to other things after we graduated. But it showed us that if we bring entertainment to campus, we could encourage the Black population to

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become more involved on campus. And so, you know, in the years following, we saw more of that happening, we saw greater involvement, more groups came up to Towson. It attracted, it ended up attracting more students. They realized that there was an African- American culture on this campus,

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and they could experience it here. So we might want to say that it helps to contribute to enrollment as well as the academic mission by knowing that there was a social life here for African-American students. So we did that in 1986/87, '86 Homecoming, we brought

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those groups up. So we were very active. Sometimes we, you know, we had to be confrontational. You know, in '87, spring of '87, we had to have a sit-in in Hoke Smith's office, because a professor got into a conflict with one of

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our students, one of our fellow Divine Nine members about a parking space. She made some derogatory comments um, to him and about him. They made comments in the class about him, and we ended up having to picket. And we had WJZ

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came up and broadcast, you know, did a live feed from know, the Uni -- well, at the time -- the Admissions Building. Um, as we sat outside the Hoke Smith's office until the university decided they didn't want to hear what he had to say. Finally. Mhm. Oh, wait, you know,

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you're on right now.