A new cultural club, the Filipinix Student Union (FSU), was recently founded at Geneseo. The club allows the Filipinix community and their allies to connect with one another and enjoy learning and experiencing Filipino culture.
Geneseo has many cultural clubs, but this will be the first dedicated to members of the Filipino community and their allies.
Early childhood/childhood education major senior and President of FSU Elize Oliverio said that she initiated the club’s founding because she felt Geneseo was lacking this niche for students. Oliverio transferred to Geneseo in fall 2018.
Before coming to Geneseo, she studied at Binghamton University and Wellesley College where there was some representation of the Filipinix community. Oliverio said she wanted to create something similar at Geneseo.
“Just being seen on campus and kind of having that community, both to just exist as a student but also to engage in discourse that felt important to identity,” Oliverio said. “As [Geneseo] is a predominantly white campus, having and creating that space felt important.”
Oliverio and a few close friends committed to creating the FSU as a place where students who identified with Filipino culture could engage in cultural exchange.
“We first started the whole student audit process a little bit earlier than this time last year, and we had provisional status,” Oliverio said. “Then we went home [after Thanksgiving] and we had provisional status in the fall. And just last month we were fully recognized as a student organization.”
The executive board for the FSU hopes to plan events in the future that will foster community around Filipino people and Filipino culture. Currently, the FSU is looking into funding from the Alliance for Community Enrichment and the Student Association, according to biology major freshman and FSU secretary/public relations representative Samantha Dumitrescu.
Aaron Enriquez, sociology major sophomore and FSU vice president, said the FSU’s goal is to create a community where students can connect over their common identities or love of Filipino culture.
“Certain events that we do have planned are cultural dinners and other events that promote and celebrate Filipino culture,” Enriquez said.
The FSU is currently holding bi-weekly meetings every other Monday from 7 to 8 p.m. The next meeting will be on May 3rd.
“Our meetings are open to anyone, and it’s free for anyone to come. If you are interested, you know, there is nothing stopping you, just come,” Enriquez said.
Dumitrescu said FSU will be a community for anyone interested.
“I’m so excited for people to start coming more into our meetings,” Dumitrescu said. “Just know that we have really good people on the e-board, and they just want to set up a community of people who are interested in our culture.”
Geneseo students are encouraged to contact Elize Oliverio, FSU president at epo2@geneseo.edu or Aaron Enriquez, FSU vice president at aje6@geneseo.edu, to be added to FSU’s Zoom email chain.