The KU Black Alumni Network is inviting Jayhawks back to the nest to celebrate the organization’s 50th anniversary with a weekend full of activities, among them a tailgate on the Hill for the KU vs. Mizzou football game on Friday, Sept. 11.
The KUBAN 50th Anniversary Reunion Weekend—“Celebrating Our Past, Navigating Our Present, Preparing for Our Future: Honoring 50 Years of Black Alumni Legacy at the University of Kansas”—will take place Sept. 10-13. The weekend will offer opportunities for alumni to reconnect and for current students and recent graduates to meet and network with alumni who’ve returned to campus.
“It’s really bringing together those lifelong relationships that were already started at the University and making sure that legacy continues afterward,” says Keiara Expose, b’15, KU Black Alumni Network communications co-chair. “So whether that is students, alumni, faculty, staff, etc., we want to make sure that we can all still come together.”
That KUBAN’s 50th anniversary celebration features KU football hearkens back to the organization’s origins.
The impetus for the network was a mini-reunion among friends in 1975. Expose says being back in Lawrence and reminiscing on their college experience inspired the group to coordinate with the University to form a larger network, which would go on to hold its meetings at the home of legendary KU running back Gale Sayers, d’75, g’77.
Expose says having Sayers as a member helped propel the organization forward.
“Once they were meeting within his home and with his wife is when they decided to develop it further to have a mission statement, a vision and alumni activities,” Expose says. “Their biggest thing was to really get students of color comfortable with coming to a predominantly white school, making sure they knew that they had allies, making sure they knew that they were safe there—that they could thrive there.”
Since then, KUBAN has helped generations of Jayhawks in their educational and career journeys, from hosting informative meetings with prospective KU students to facilitating mentorship relationships between current students and alumni in the same field.
Connection and camaraderie
KU Black Alumni Network events and reunions through the years.
The pregame tailgate, hosted in collaboration with the Kansas City Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, will begin at 5 p.m. on the Hill outside David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Attendees are invited to mingle and enjoy food and drinks before the 7 p.m. kickoff. And the stadium won’t be the only place to catch the game: The network will also host a watch party at the Jayhawk Welcome Center beginning at 7 p.m.
Additional events throughout the weekend include an exhibit at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library documenting the network’s history over the past 50 years, a meet and greet, KUBAN business meeting, a bus tour of campus and historic sites in Lawrence, brunch, and an awards gala followed by music and dancing. During the gala, the network will honor recipients of its Emerging Leaders Award (alumni under 40) and present its premier award, the Mike and Joyce Shinn Leaders & Innovators Award, named for two former KUBAN leaders. The reunion will conclude Sunday with a service at Ninth Street Missionary Baptist Church.
For KU alumni interested in becoming active in the Black Alumni Network, the 50th anniversary weekend will provide a prime opportunity to get involved in the organization’s mission of maximizing Black alumni participation in the University’s affairs and promoting the personal growth and professional development of those in the network.
Alumni can join the KU Black Alumni Network via the “Contact Us” form on KUBAN’s website, and can follow the network’s Instagram account and join its groups on LinkedIn and Facebook—a group 1,400 members strong.
Pre-registration for the KU Black Alumni Network’s 50th Anniversary Weekend is $75, and attendees can also register on-site for $85. View the full schedule for the weekend and register online.
Rochelle Valverde, c’08, j’15, is staff writer for Crimson & Blue.
