Looking around Sternberger Auditorium during the biannual Club Fair is always a treat. Clubs like the Community AIDS Awareness Project, Guilford Peace Society and Blacks Unifying Society (BUS) can inspire many students, and the latter has been accomplishing it for decades. BUS is attempting to reach out and spread unity not only the African-American community here at Guilford, but to the entire campus and anyone else willing to listen.

“If you see something that you feel needs to be done, you can’t just sit back and complain about it. You need to be involved and you need to be active,” said Christine Somerville, president of BUS. “Our goals are to unify the African-American community as well as reach out to the surrounding community and provide a glimpse of the African-American experience.”

BUS has only existed under its current name for three years, but was previously known at Guilford as The African American Cultural Society (ACCS). A similar group, known as Brothers and Sisters in Blackness, turned into ACCS in the early 80’s.

With a strong focus on community service, BUS has sponsored many activities for first-year students and held community meetings to hear the voices of the student body. Earlier this year, they put together the Cartoon Mania presentation during diversity week, which showed how some cartoons are discriminatory on multiple levels.

In 2009, BUS plans to make great strides in furthering their cause. Aside from their usual meetings on Monday at 9 a.m., BUS will host events such as “Loving Yourself” week in early February. The program is meant to teach individuals how to raise their self-esteem and have a healthy self-image. It is set to include a tour of the gym coupled with fitness information, a fashion show, and a slumber party.

Later on in the semester, the now-annual clothes swap will occur in the Founders lobby. Students may swap or donate clothes with the collection that will be set out. At the end of the day, BUS will donate the collected clothes to the Greensboro Urban Ministry, an outreach organization that provides clothes, food, and shelter to those need it.

BUS also manages the committees Brothers Doing Positive and Sister to Sister. Brothers Doing Positive holds lunches for men of the Guilford community, in order to provide an atmosphere for them to feel free to speak openly about anything concerning them.

Sister to Sister accomplishes a similar task, while also promoting holistic health. The group will meet in order to speak freely, but will also head to the gym to work out and promote good health and self-awareness. On top of all this, they hold study groups intermittently throughout the year to give students a chance to focus and study together in order to promote academic success.

“BUS brings awareness to cultures of many various students and backgrounds,” said Director of Student Leadership and Engagement Erica Cosentino. “The group really is a support system for quite a lot of students.