Unity in Diversity Week did not effectively promote unity because of a lack of communication, said members of NIU’s Black Student Union.

BSU Vice President Demetricus Carlvin said communication could have been improved by publicizing activities through better channels, such as between organizations instead of by word of mouth.

BSU President Chris O’Banner and Carlvin agreed some Unity in Diversity Week programs were attended and promoted only by members of the organization that sponsored them.

O’Banner said Sigma Chi failed to promote a speech Thursday night. O’Banner accused the fraternity of concentrating its promotion efforts on Hands Across Campus, while failing to help promote C.T. Vivian’s speech on racism, although Sigma Chi was one of the speech’s sponsors.

Sigma Chi President Kevin Meadows said the fraternity promoted the speech by passing out fliers and speaking to members of all fraternity and sorority houses on Greek Row. Ed Joy, Sigma Chi’s co-chairman of Hands Across Campus, said sign-up sheets indicate that BSU members did not participate in Hands Across Campus.

The goal of Unity in Diversity Week should be the importance of understanding and realizing differences in every culture, O’Banner said. The most successful aspect of Unity in Diversity Week was Vivian’s speech, Carlvin and O’Banner said.

For the most part, Unity in Diversity Week did not include events that would teach anything of substance, O’Banner said.

Mike Bonds, president of Brothers Reaching Out to Help Enlighten and Rejuvenate Self-Consciousness, said participation in Unity in Diversity Week activities is low because upperclassmen “see it as hypocrisy” because the week’s activities and themes do not carry over into the rest of the year. Freshman also are relatively unaware of the week’s intent, which contributes to low participation, he said.