State of the Union Address – 2016

UNT Black Alumni Network (UNT-BAN)
“Where We Stand”

Dear UNT-BAN Members and other Alumni:

Homecoming 2016 is quickly approaching!!!!

It is my pleasure to invite you to come and celebrate this year’s Homecoming celebration with BAN. We have great things planned to keep you entertained from Friday through Saturday night. As your new BAN President, I would like to take this time to thank our founding President, Mr. Steven Bradley, for his leadership and laying of a solid foundation for BAN. My challenge, with your help, is to take BAN to the next level and create a model for alumni involvement that other colleges and universities can follow. Homecoming is the culmination of several successful UNT BAN Mixers in Dallas and Fort Worth. We want BAN to be an active blended organization that serves in the function of engaging and allowing of all ages and genders to support, participate with, and positively influence our alma mater.

I am pleased to share with you some of the highlights of the past years, and our plans for an exciting future:

• Established and built out the organizational infrastructure required for any university affiliated organization.

• As an officially recognized organization, BAN has made tremendous progress in cultivating strategic partnerships. We have accomplished this by meeting and engaging in dialogue with many of the departments at UNT. I am proud that our growing reputation is making BAN a choice organization for strategy development and dialogue around the University’s efforts to increase the recruitment and retention of Black students at UNT.

• Conferred with the various Presidents’ of the organizations under the umbrella of the Black Student Union (BSU), all of which have a huge interest in cultivating a relationship with BAN, both at homecoming, and in all other business related endeavors throughout the year.

• BSU has also expressed interest in establishing a professional mentoring program through BSE (the Black Student Experience) and BAN.

• Our four areas of focus for the future are networking, scholarships, mentoring, and career advancement. We will lay a foundation for putting work plans together for each of the areas to reach a hand back and a hand up.

I anticipate that these programs will be in place over the next year, and will provide BAN and the students of UNT opportunities to work collaboratively to make UNT an attractive option and great experience for African American students. If you have not joined BAN, I encourage you to do so. The membership dues are only $25 annually.

I hope that you were able to attend homecoming last year and had a great time. BAN is looking forward to seeing you again this year. We ask that you join us for all the Homecoming activities, November 04 – 06, alumni, graduates and undergraduates alike. Visit UNT Black Alumni Network website for more information.

Sincerely,
Casey Thomas, II, President
UNT Black Alumni Network