African-American students on the ISU campus are feeling the love this week.

Members of the Black Student Alliance are sponsoring the 10th annual Black Love Week. The event includes activities calling for black people to love and appreciate each other collectively throughout the week.

“This week was designed to create unity while strengthening our bond as black students on a predominately white campus,” said P’Angela Haynes, president of the Black Student Alliance.

BSA began the week by celebrating a Black Family Day during which they watched the coverage of the Million Family March in Washington, D.C. “We discussed what we can do to support our black family,” said Haynes, freshman in pre-journalism and mass communication. “We decided that family is much deeper than our blood line; it extends throughout our community.”

Other events during the week include Black Woman Appreciation Day, National Affirmative Action Day and a Battle of the Sexes.

BSA will end the week with a Soul Food Dinner at 3 p.m. Sunday. Haynes said following this custom is a good way to help create a strong feeling of community and friendship among black students at Iowa State and that all of the black community at Iowa State is invited to come and eat.

“It’s tradition,” she said. “Black families typically get together on Sundays and have a big meal.”

Robert Price, vice president of the Black Student Alliance, said Black Love Week is among a variety of events sponsored by BSA. “We are trying to incorporate our theme of `remembering our roots’ throughout all of our programs,” said Price, junior in management information systems.

Haynes also said the week is a good way for BSA to show what it’s about. “We were founded to be proactive, not reactive,” she said. “We were founded to build community with the black people in Ames, as well as the teachers and professors in the Iowa State community. Lately, that hasn’t been happening.”

Haynes said she is disappointed with the condition of the black community at Iowa State. “We used to have one community. Now we have sub-communities and sub-sub-communities,” she said. “We are trying to get people to come out their comfort zone.”