Contact the OBSA
Phone | (909) 607-3669
Email | obsa@claremont.edu
Hours | Monday-Friday 9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Office of Black Student Affairs
139 E. Seventh St.
Claremont, CA, 91711
Office of Black Student Affairs (OBSA)
Video Overview
OBSA Programs and Events
OBSA Peer Mentorship
OBSA Peer Mentorship
OBSA Peer Mentorship is planning a virtual start date in late fall with dates to be confirmed. Peer mentorship is 1:1.
PEER MENTOR RECRUITMENT (applications accepted now through August 2020)
We encourage students who wish to mentor in the 2020-2021 academic year to apply here. Please expect to be contacted for selection and pairing with a mentee over the summer. We encourage existing groups (for the 2019-2020 academic year) to remain in contact and in support of one another during the COVID-19 crisis as you are able.
MENTEE RECRUITMENT (applications accepted June-September 2020)
Incoming students of any 5C College can apply to OBSA Mentorship starting in June 2020. Students who wish be a mentee in the 2020-2021 academic year can apply here and on the OBSA Mentorship webpage.
Alumni Engagement
Alumni Engagement
OBSA’s Alumni Outreach Initiatives
- OBSA’s Alumni Database
- The Alumni database collects survey data from Black-identified alumni across the 7 Colleges
- The OBSA 7C Virtual Student-Alumni Mentoring Program
- Drawing from OBSA’s database of over 100 Black alumni, Black students are able to match with alumni for virtual mentoring and coaching across colleges, disciplines, and professional interest.
- Designed to connect students to alumnis with resources, support, and other opportunities
- Matching is done on a rolling basis and pairs are self-directed.
- Claremont Colleges Black Alumni Engagement LinkedIn Page
- Alumni can use the page to share information, learn about OBSA’s specific initiatives directed to alumni and engage with one another on a range of topics.
- All students are invited to participate in the Alumni Mentoring program, the annual alumni weekend brunch, and to use OBSA’s networks to connect to Black alumni of The Claremont Colleges.
- Alumni Weekend Brunch
- As of spring 2015, OBSA hosts a yearly alumni weekend brunch to welcome alumni, share information about OBSA’s current initiatives, and make connections with students.
- Black Alternabreak Program
- Black Alternabreak is an annual week-long community engagement trip during Spring Break.
- Students commit their spring break to volunteering with organizations in the larger community, addressing social issues such as environmental justice, community uplift, homelessness, and hunger.
- Coordinators lead three trips each spring to San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles.
- Additional Initiatives
- Building a network of local California area of Black alumni of The Claremont Colleges that participates in various programming including networking events and workshops, OBSA anchor programming, speaking engagements for Black Graduation and other events.
If you’re a Claremont Colleges alum and have not already done so, please complete our alumni engagement survey.
We will only contact you if you indicate on the survey that you want to be part of the initiatives listed above. All contact information is confidential and for office purposes only.
Be sure to attend our yearly alumni receptions hosted in OBSA during your college’s alumni weekend. Stop by and visit OBSA when you are in town or make an appointment to chat with our staff!
Black History Month
Black History Month
Black History Month at The Claremont Colleges
In 1969, ethnic studies departments and cultural centers were founded across the nation, stemming from student activism around equity and inclusion. Students of color and allies called for an investment in marginalized experiences, intending cultural centers to be a place to be a support against racial hostility and erasure, and advocated for the creation of ethnic studies departments to demonstrate the intellectual value of scholarship centering people of color as authors and subjects. At The Claremont Colleges, students’ voices contributed to the founding of cultural centers CLSA and OBSA, and ethnic studies departments IDCLS and IDAS. In recognition of the journeys of our respective units, OBSA, CLSA, IDCLS and IDAS are celebrate Black History Month with individual and collaborative programming.
Check back for updates on Black History Month 2021 occurring around The Claremont Colleges in February.
Black Intersections Conference
Black Intersections Conference
Black Intersections Conference
The Black Intersections Conference is a forum to discuss pertinent issues and events impacting Black communities locally and globally in a supportive, culturally engaging environment, will occur virtually for 2021. The conference is a space for students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members of African descent to share their scholarship and converse around the factors that shape and impact Black identities and lived experiences. Check back for updates and registration information for the 2021 Conference, which will occur Saturday, February 27, 2021.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration
Dr. Agnes Moreland Jackson Service Awards and Black Graduation
OBSA hosts the annual Dr. Agnes Moreland Jackson Service Awards and Black Graduation together each May to commemorate the many contributions of students, faculty and staff and to celebrate students obtaining degrees from each of The Claremont Colleges (both the graduate and undergraduate institutions). The order of events for the day traditionally includes the OBSA Dean’s welcome address, the singing of the Black National Anthem, followed by the service awards, the alumni keynote, the graduation ceremony and the closing lunch reception. Claremont Colleges Black faculty and staff are invited to wear their regalia and register to be seated onstage to cheer on and support students during the ceremony. Each graduate is welcome to make a brief speech to acknowledge those who supported them in their journey. The Dr. Agnes Moreland Jackson Service Awards and Black Graduation occurs on the Friday before graduation, so that graduates, their friends and family and the community at large can attend. It does NOT serve to replace each of the colleges’ graduation ceremonies, and students are encouraged to attend both Black Graduation and their college’s event. Degrees are not conferred at Black Graduation; however all graduates receive a congratulatory certificate from OBSA signed by the Dean and Assistant Dean. Following the tradition of hundreds of colleges and universities across the United States, Black Graduation is a unifying, community centered event that provides a sense of belonging, particularly for students of African descent attending colleges where they are few in number. Black Graduation offers space for students and their families to express joy freely and in the spirit of love, inclusion and acknowledgment. Registration for graduates begins in February.
Upcoming Events
There are no upcoming events at this time.
OBSA Services
We stand with the global protests against police brutality and in support of Black lives. We hope all who choose to participate in protests in person are able to preserve their safety and are connected to avenues for relief and legal information. For those sharing information and engaging in discussions, please be mindful of sources interchangeably linking protesting to violence and looting with intention to discredit the aims of the movement. Consider the ways in which Black people engaging in any form of protest are and historically have been over policed, surveilled and the target of violent reprisal from police and civilian forces. If you’re participating in discussions with others around the Black Lives Matter movement, read the publicly accessible information about the organizations’ platform (blacklivesmatter.org) as well as the numerous organizations mobilizing on behalf of Black lives through activism, litigation, monitoring hate groups and sharing resources (Southern Poverty Law center, splcenter.org).
Learn the ways media and other institutions consistently underline white supremacist rthetoric while supporting sensationalist misrepresentations of Black people in general, particularly those who engage in uprisings against oppressive regimes. OBSA supports a nuanced and contextual understanding of global anti-blackness and the ways police and the military are deployed as part of a larger project of Black subjugation.
We are committed to the safety and well-being of our community members and stand in solidarity with those involved in justice movements. We call for an end to state sanctioned genocide, unjust deaths and lack of legal recourse perpetuated against Black people.
In solidarity,
Lydia Middleton, Dean of Black Student Affairs
On behalf of OBSA
Sign up here to receive our monthly newsletter and electronic announcements about our upcoming events. Here are previous OBSA newsletters:
OBSA From Home Vol I | May: Graduation Issue
OBSA From Home Vol 2 | June: For Black Lives
OBSA From Home Vol 3 | July: Black Student Voices and Movements
OBSA From Home Vol 4 | August: End of Summer Issue
OBSA From Home Vol 5 | September: Welcome Issue
Each year, OBSA publishes The Black Book to assist students in identifying essential services and faculty and staff of African descent at The Claremont Colleges. The Black Book supports students in connecting to communities of African descent at The Claremont Colleges and beyond, including listings of local Black owned and Black Alumni-owned businesses. Students can easily locate and access health and wellness related services, as well as shared service resources across the colleges.
The book is updated yearly and printed copies are made available to participants in the OBSA Mentorship Program.
View all publications of the Black Book by clicking the links below:
BlackBook 2018-2019
OBSA is pleased to partner with the folowing groups and departments to broaden the experience for The Claremont Colleges Students.
OBSA Affiliations |
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FacultyAlumniStudent Organizations
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Administrative Departments
Community |
Departments and Organizations
If you are from an office or department that wishes to collaborate with OBSA or request a workshop facilitated by our staff, we have developed a set of guidelines to assist in this process. Please see the attached OBSA Workshop Request Procedure to learn more, and arrange a time to talk with our staff about your initiative. Please email completed requests to our office.
Faculty
Are you a faculty member who wants to get involved with OBSA to connect students to your scholarship or other opportunities? Read our letter to faculty and learn more about how OBSA plans to incorporate and highlight the work of faculty that connects students to learning, mentoring, research and other educational opportunities from various 7C academic departments. Click here to complete our faculty outreach survey!
When in person classes become available, OBSA offers students, faculty and staff enrolled and/or employed at The Colleges permission to use the center after hours (7 days a week, 7am-11pm). OBSA is open for public use M-F, 9am-12pm and 1pm-4:30pm.
1. Download the OBSA Card Swipe and Space Use Agreement
Swipe access carries over each year until employment or enrollment is completed, no need to renew an access form. Access may be suspended or limited if policy rules are not kept. Request to reserve space in OBSA by email.
View the BLACK GRADUATION ZOOM KEYNOTE with Dr. Eileen Wilson- Oyelaran (POM ’69 and CGU ’77)
This year’s keynote is dedicated to the life and work of Dr. Agnes Moreland Jackson (1930-2020) and the graduating class of 2020. Join us for an inspiring message from our 50th anniversary alumni keynote, Dr. Wilson-Oyelaran.
The keynote and congratulatory videos from Claremont Colleges faculty and staff are available on OBSA’s Black Graduation page
View the webinar: Shifting Narratives–Using Education as a Tool for Protest and DismantlingSystemic Racism
Presented by Harvey Mudd College Office of Institutional Diversity, OBSA and Black Lives at Mudd (BLAM)
This speaker panel from June 2020 discusses pertinent issues for students, faculty and staff as they navigate campus climate during the global responses to police brutality and antiblack racism. Panelists include Dr. Kundai Chirindo (professor, Lewis and Clark College), Dr. Bridget Turner Kelly (Dean, University of Maryland) and Dr. Anna Gonzalez (VPSA, Dean of Students, HMC). Moderated by Lydia Middleton (Dean, Office of Black Student Affairs, TCC). View the panel here