The executive board of the Black Law Students Association (“BLSA”) at the Washington College of Law (“WCL”) is dedicated to keeping up the long-standing BLSA tradition of continually improving how BLSA serves not only Black law students at the Washington College of Law, but also the greater WCL community as well as the community outside our law school’s walls.  This year, our chief aims are improving communication and fostering community in our organization.

Communication. 

One way we feel that we can better serve you is by improving communication between our board and our membership.  We have already started to work toward achieving this goal.  Recently, we launched this website, which we hope will serve as a valuable resource to our members.  We also plan on streamlining our communications with our membership.  By publishing a weekly newsletter, we hope to keep you abreast of new developments without bombarding you with e-mails. 

Communication, we realize, is a two way street.  We want to hear what our membership has to say.  This year, we will be providing our membership with more chances to be heard.  One way our membership will have an opportunity to express its ideas is through the general and events committees we have established.  We believe by getting all BLSA members to more actively participate in the planning of events, BLSA will make significant progress toward achieving all of the obligations outlined in the BLSA constitution.  We will also be holding a general body meeting each month in order to facilitate the exchange of ideas between BLSA members.  I also strongly encourage you to contact me personally if you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns.

Community.

One of our paramount obligations is fostering solidarity between Black law students. Fostering solidarity should not be confused with homogenization.  While we realize that many of us have one thing in common, being Black, we also understand that our organization comprises individuals of diverse backgrounds.  Embracing both our differences and our similarities will aid us to forge a stronger bond than highlighting our similarities alone.  As we work to strengthen our community, we would also like to remind you that any person is welcome to become a member of BLSA, and we would strongly encourage anyone who is sympathetic to our goals to join.

I am very pleased and honored to be serving as the President of BLSA at WCL for the 2006-2007 academic year.  On behalf of the Black Law Student Association at the Washington College of Law, I invite you to become part of our conversation and our community.  Together we can take BLSA to new heights. 

Very truly yours,

Ogochukwu Ekwuabu