While the spring 2022 semester at Shippensburg University has been over for some time, it doesn’t mean that student groups and organizations have stopped offering events for those still on campus.

One of those groups is Multicultural Student Affairs and its annual Juneteenth celebration, an event meant to honor the legacy behind the June 19th holiday. Despite the on-campus community being much smaller this time of year, it didn’t stop MSA from pulling out all the stops.

The event was held on Thursday, June 16, in the Hockey Rink (though it was originally to be held outside of Gilbert Hall, and was changed due to inclement weather). The event began with opening remarks from several of the campus’ familiar faces. Diane Jefferson, the director of the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, and Kapri Brown, assistant to the director, started things off with a brief history lesson regarding Juneteenth.

The holiday is celebrated every year to commemorate the freeing of enslaved peoples following the end of the Civil War, as well as being declared free under The Emancipation Proclamation. Following them was SU President Charles Patterson, who spoke on the legacy of the holiday, as well as the matter of diversity on campus.

This served as a transition to Manuel Ruiz, who continued the discussion of diversity on campus. The celebration came on the same day as the announcement of Ruiz’s appointment as assistant vice president for Inclusion and Belonging and director of social equity. Following his speech, Ruiz spoke about his plans for increasing diversity within the campus community.

“I’m working with the General Education Council to examine diversity in the curriculum. In there, addressing microaggressions in the classroom and providing our faculty with the resources to address those types of conversations,” he said.

Following the presenters, guests were treated to soul food, as well as live performances from a variety of groups. The first of which came from a show-stopping demonstration by the Temple Guard Drill Team. The group is located in York, Pennsylvania, and consists of young community members of all backgrounds, learning discipline through military-style marches.

Following the team was Baltimore-based R&B group, Ten Karat Gold, singing some familiar favorites. Led by singer Darlene Johnson, the group had the crowd up on their feet and dancing to renditions of “Lady Marmalade” and “Yeah!” by Usher.

As the event came to a close, MSA Director Diane Jefferson gave a preview of what to expect from MSA this coming fall. “We got some big stuff. We’re going to do a lot more to invite people up to MSA and get them involved in what we do,” she said. “We want to cut the fear factor.”

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