There will be a new residential learning community at the University of Connecticut beginning the Fall 2023 semester.
UConn’s B.S.O.U.L, Black Sisters Optimizing Unity & Leadership, will become the first residential learning community on campus with a mission to support Black women, the B.S.O.U.L Instagram said.
The student led effort to make B.S.O.U.L an official residential learning community has been in the works for several years, explained Tae’Niajha Pullen, a fourth semester political science and Black anthropology individualized major.
“I am not the first person to try this. It has been a long time coming. We are a support system and safe haven for Black women, but anyone can join. We don’t discriminate based on gender, race or sex,” Pullen said.
Pullen got involved with B.S.O.U.L in her freshman year because of feeling a need for there to be a safe place for Black women students and allies on campus, she explained.
Hannah Ravenell, a First Year Experience mentor and learning community assistant who graduated this past December, explained what B.S.O.U.L originated as and its journey to becoming a residential learning community.
“It was initially a First Year Experience class called “Black Women Voices in Higher Education.” That is the class which is now becoming the residential learning community B.S.O.U.L,” Ravenell said.
Ravenell explained that before becoming a residential learning community, B.S.O.U.L originally formed as a non-residential one.
The group accepts any interested students and allies, with community and creation of a safe space for Black women being an essential goal of B.S.O.U.L., Pullen explained.
“We often talk about our experiences as Black women at UConn or things we may commonly experience on a day to day basis,” Pullen said.
Although Ravenell did not get to see B.S.O.U.L. as a residential learning community during her time at UConn, she is excited for some current and future students to be a part of it.
“I’m excited for students to have a space like this to look forward to in the upcoming semester,” Ravenell said.
For those interested in creating a project, group, community or club based on a passion, Pullen encourages students to do it.
“If there is something that UConn students see as wrong in the world and want to talk about, B.S.O.U.L becoming a learning community shows that there is the possibility to create that at UConn,” Pullen said.
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