Cedric Bolton once had a basketball coach who helped him stay focused, make good choices and become a leader on and off the court.

Bolton is now this type of mentor for students who come through his door. Heading the Black History Month committee and running programs like Verbal Blends Poetry have made Bolton, the coordinator of student engagement for Syracuse University’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, a support system and role model for many.

He is motivated to invest in his students by people like his coach, who influenced and guided him growing up.

“That’s one of the reasons why I put so much effort into students,” Bolton said. “If you put good energy into people, they’ll put good energy into someone else. It’s like paying it forward.”

Bolton first immersed himself into community projects as an undergraduate at Western Washington University. He served as the vice president of diversity for the Associated Students — the university’s official governing body — and the vice president of the Black Student Union.

After college, Bolton wanted to continue with this type of involvement, so he took a position in the African American Resource Center at the University of Minnesota where he could develop programs for students and work with them directly.

Bolton first started his SU journey in the Office of Multicultural Affairs when his wife was offered a position as a women and gender studies professor 13 years ago.

One of his main goals became designing cultural celebrative months, each one specific to distinct cultures so he could be sure to cover them fairly and find strong faculty experts for each.

“I started to understand the culture of SU and figure out what I can do here,” Bolton said.

By Bolton’s third year he was organizing various committees comprised of staff, faculty and students and began reaching out to other organizations on campus to help plan events.

For Black History Month in particular, events include a commemorative lecture, performances at the Black Lounge — which highlights emerging black artists in the campus or community — and the Sankofa lecture series, where accomplished alumni return and speak to students.

Abigail Covington, a sophomore writing and rhetoric and sociology double major, is one of the students helping Bolton with the preparations for Black History Month.

Covington, the social media intern for the Office of Multicultural Affairs, started working with Bolton when the Black History Month committee began preparations back in October. Since then, Covington has seen the quantity of effort Bolton has poured into planning and coordinating the slate of events.

“He pours a lot into this and makes sure the students have what they want,” she said. “He has been overworking for this.”

Bolton is a caring figure, and Covington has noticed that he makes himself a figure any student can go to.

This is in part why the Office of Multicultural affairs exudes a feeling of home to Covington, and it quickly became just that for her — it’s the place she goes every time she has a break in her day, often just to hang out.

But for many students like her, the significance of the OMA goes even deeper. The roots of the space can be traced back to student activism in the 1970s, Covington said, when students of color didn’t see a place for themselves on campus.

“They protested and created a space for the OMA and that brought about what we have now — a space for students who might not have had one otherwise,” she said.

The office creates room for important relationships and new doors to be opened for students, Bolton said, and he welcomes students who come in wanting to talk when a program engages or inspires them.

“You want students to know they have support, they have resources,” Bolton said.

Covington said all of Bolton’s efforts in the office and towards celebrating Black History Month are especially important for students of color on campus.

“The history of black people as a whole is so important to the narrative of American culture, so we have to make sure that it doesn’t get neglected on campuses,” she said. “If you don’t make a platform for yourself on campus you won’t get heard.”

The Black History Month committee is aiming to bring attention to the month-long celebration and make sure students feel supported in their culture and their identity. Bolton works to empower students in other ways as well, most notably through Verbal Blends Poetry, a group that provides a safe space for students to share their stories and poems.

The inspiration for this group came from Bolton’s time at the University of Minnesota where he was leading a black poetry group called Poetic Black Fusion. Seeing its success with providing a platform for student voices, SU asked Bolton if he would be willing to start something similar on campus. He agreed, and the group is now in its 10th year.

But supporting students’ passions is nothing new to Bolton.

Miracle Rogers, a senior health and exercise science major, has known Bolton since her freshman year. When Bolton saw her dance at several campus events including the Martin Luther King Jr. dinner, he asked her to help run a modern dance workshop as one of the Black History Month events.

“He knows how to bring special gifts out of people when they don’t know they have it,” Rogers said. “He knows how to find it even when they don’t see it within themselves.”

The purpose of the workshop is to highlight styles of dance that students might not be familiar with or exposed to, like the Dunham technique, named for a black modern dance innovator.

Rogers believes in the importance of exposing students to the parts of black culture they might be unfamiliar with, whether that be food, dance or certain traditions.

This value is also important to Bolton, Rogers said. One symbol that is very important to him is the Sankofa bird, which represents the idea that learning from the past ensures a strong future.

“He’s very big on never forgetting where you come from and where you’ve been,” Rogers said.

Bolton’s mission is to use his position to help students reflect on the past and appreciate in the present. He continues to advocate for learning as much as possible about important figures and traditions.

“There’s a lot of richness in all of our cultures,” Bolton said. “We have so much that we have created, and if we don’t bring that to life — it’s just a missed opportunity.”

Published on January 30, 2017 at 10:14 pm

Contact: ajboghos@syr.edu