At Kent State University, Homecoming is more than a weekend on the calendar. For the Kent State University Black Alumni Chapter (KSUBAC), it is a time to return, remember, organize and recommit to the generations coming behind us. Since becoming president in 2023, Georgio Sabino III has worked alongside a committed board and a broad family of alumni, students, faculty and community supporters to keep that purpose visible—especially during a period of significant change for higher education, Kent State and Black campus communities.

KSUBAC serve Black alumni across the country, build connections among generations of Golden Flashes and support students through initiatives such as the Black Alumni Scholarship. The chapter’s work has always extended beyond reunions: it has created space for networking, service, professional development, fellowship and the preservation of Black Kent State history. Kent State recognizes the chapter as a longtime partner that brings alumni, students, former students and the wider community together through social events, watch parties, workshops and volunteer opportunities.[kent][kent]

Leadership in a changing moment

Leading a Black alumni organization today requires more than planning events. It requires a steady hand, a listening ear and a board willing to work through difficult questions together. As universities across Ohio respond to state-level changes affecting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, Kent State has been navigating the requirements of Ohio Senate Bill 1. The law took effect in June 2025 and requires public universities to implement prohibitions affecting DEI offices, initiatives and training, while also imposing new requirements involving intellectual diversity, reporting, curriculum and Board of Trustees oversight. Kent State’s own compliance guidance notes that three identity centers closed in June 2025.[kent]

These are serious institutional changes, and they affect how people experience belonging, support and community on campus. In that environment, KSUBAC’s role becomes even more important. The chapter can remain a bridge: connecting alumni who know Kent State’s history with current students who are shaping its future; connecting faculty and staff with community voices; and connecting generations that may have attended the university under very different circumstances but share a common legacy.

President Sabino and the KSUBAC board have approached this period with the understanding that a strong alumni chapter must do two things at once: celebrate the joy, excellence and achievements of Black Kent State alumni, while also creating room for honest conversations about the challenges facing the university and the people who call it home. That work is not carried by one person. It is made possible by a team of board members, volunteers, alumni partners and students who continue showing up, contributing ideas and helping build programs that matter.

A legacy of service – “I am a champion of kindness”

KSUBAC stands on a foundation built by leaders who refused to let Black alumni engagement become an afterthought. Among those leaders is Emeritus Silas Ashley, ’74, JD, a former president of Black United Students and a former KSUBAC president who now serves as president emeritus. Ashley’s leadership has connected student activism, alumni involvement and institutional memory across decades.

As a Kent State student, Ashley helped Black United Students advocate for Black students, obtain resources and secure permanent space for what became the Department of Africana Studies. He also helped advance Kent State’s Black History Month efforts. Later, as KSUBAC president, he served for six years and helped lead milestone programs, including a memorial honoring E. Timothy Moore that brought more than 500 people together virtually, a major Black History Month celebration and programs for graduating seniors and incoming students. His continuing commitment reflects the belief that every generation has a responsibility to leave a stronger blueprint for the next.[kent]

The connection between KSUBAC and Black United Students is especially meaningful. BUS represents the energy, advocacy and possibility of current students; KSUBAC represents the experience, networks and collective memory of alumni. Together, those groups show what intergenerational community can look like. Alumni can offer encouragement, career guidance, mentorship, resources and historical perspective. Students, in turn, keep alumni connected to the present-day realities of campus life and to the new ideas that will shape the future.

That is why programs developed with campus and community partners matter. They are not simply events. They are opportunities for alumni to meet students where they are, to share hard-earned lessons, to celebrate achievement and to make sure no student feels they must navigate Kent State alone.

Homecoming as connection

Over the last several years, KSUBAC has continued to emphasize connection through Homecoming programming, social gatherings, alumni engagement and conversations that bring together the full range of Black Kent State experiences. The chapter’s Homecoming presence fits a long tradition: Kent State notes that the Black Alumni Chapter holds annual events, including a Homecoming celebration each fall, and supports the Black Alumni Scholarship through fundraising.[kent]

Homecoming 2026 carried that spirit forward. Kent State’s official schedule included the Black Alumni Chapter Homecoming Tailgate at Dix Stadium, where alumni and friends gathered before the Golden Flashes took the field. The purpose was simple but powerful: meet up, reconnect and celebrate shared Kent State pride.[kent][kent]

The weekend also included the retirement celebration for Professor Emeritus Baba Mwatabu S. Okantah, a beloved scholar, teacher, artist and figure in Kent State’s Africana Studies community. Friends, family, students and alumni gathered on Friday to recognize his years of service and the mark he has left on generations of Kent State students. Okantah’s relationship to the university’s Black community runs deep: he has served as a professor in Africana Studies, a faculty adviser to Black United Students and, during his student years, a BUS vice president.[kent]

The celebration was a reminder that institutions are remembered not only through buildings, policies or official announcements, but through the people who teach, mentor, challenge and uplift others over a lifetime. Honoring Baba Okantah was also an example of the kind of work KSUBAC can help sustain: recognizing living legacies while passing their stories forward.

The chapter’s fellowship has taken many forms—from Homecoming gatherings and Friday programming to informal spaces such as Thirsty Thursdays, where alumni can reconnect, share news and strengthen relationships. These gatherings are important because they make room for both celebration and conversation. They allow a graduate from the 1970s to sit with someone from the 1990s, 2000s or 2020s and discover that, despite different eras, there is a common language of perseverance, pride and Black excellence at Kent State.

Activating the seeds

KSUBAC recognizes the full range of its alumni community through the H-O-M-Y framework:

• H — Honored Ones: Those who began at Kent State prior to 1970
• O — Old Heads: Those who began at Kent State from 1970 to 1979
• M — Mature Ones: Those who began at Kent State from 1980 to 1994
• Y — Young Alumni: Those who began at Kent State from 1995 to 2023

These names are more than labels. They acknowledge that every era holds knowledge, stories and relationships that deserve to be shared. They remind us that the Black Kent State experience did not begin with one class, one program or one generation—and it will not end with one.

As KSUBAC looks toward Homecoming 2027, the chapter is exploring additional Friday and Sunday programming while continuing to bring alumni together as an active community. The goal is not simply to add events to a schedule. It is to develop meaningful spaces where alumni can reconnect, mentor, reflect, collaborate and support the students and institutions that helped shape them.

The charge to alumni is clear: activate your seeds. Carry forward the wisdom of professors, the strength gained through relationships, the lessons learned through challenges and the opportunities discovered at Kent State. Turn those seeds into mentorship for a student, support for a scholarship, attendance at an event, service to the community or a conversation that helps another Golden Flash see what is possible.

Under President Georgio Sabino III’s leadership, with the labor and dedication of the KSUBAC board, and with the guidance of legacy leaders such as Silas Ashley, the chapter continues to build on a powerful foundation. The work is not without challenges. But it is sustained by a belief that Black alumni are not merely part of Kent State’s past—they are central to its present and essential to its future.