The Barometer Online

Issue date: 2/19/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Cory Reed Shannon Warren talks on the phone at Intercultural Student Services on Wednesday. Warren works as a research technician for ethnic studies at Oregon State.

While Corvallis isn't known as a symbol of diversity, it is known for the annual Divine Nine Step Show, co-sponsored by the Black Student Union and OSU alumna Shannon Warren's entertainment company, Ohh So Pretty.

"There's just nothing like it," she said. "I like every event that's specific to a culture. This is the biggest black event on campus. It brings people together who normally don't have a chance to."

The Step Show attracts students who normally wouldn't come to OSU. Warren has met students on campus who say they chose the university because of the dynamic event.

"We have the second largest step show on the west coast," she said. "This is our seventh year doing it."

Warren, 24, graduated in 2007 and is working as a research technician for the department of ethnic studies.

As a former president of the Black Student Union and now as the chief operating officer of the entertainment company, Warren has been responsible for securing acts from as many of the nine historically black fraternities incorporated in the United States as possible, reserving the venue, and overall planning of the event for years.

Warren is a woman of many opinions.

"I'm a very outspoken person," she said. "I'm going to say what I want to say."

In her undergraduate years, she was able to voice those opinions as an active member of the campus community as the president of the Black Student Union, the director of multi-cultural affairs for ASOSU, a member of the educational activities committee, a member of the Martin Luther King planning committee and an office assistant for intercultural student services.

However, she has her doubts about campus media.

In 2007, the infamous front page photograph printed in The Daily Barometer of white OSU students decked out in black attire and black body paint for a "black out Reser" football event ignited racial tensions between cultural groups and student media on campus.

Continued...

Page 1 of 3 next >

Article Tools