The fifth annual BearFest celebration, previously known until this year as Diversity Day, was held Friday, March 28, on Cruz Plaza. BearFest allows students, student-led organizations and local diversity-focused collectives and groups to showcase their clubs and celebrate diversity on the Mercer campus.
This event began in 2020 as Diversity Day and was initially formed by the now-defunct Minority Mentor program. After the cancellation of the 2020 program due to COVID-19, the event was then taken over by the Mercer Diversity and Inclusion program, which, as of summer 2024 is part of the Mercer Office of Equity and Compliance after merging with the Title IX Office.
This year, the event was co-run by the federal TRIO program and Student Affairs, and while it was not marketed as a diversity-focused event, did retain nearly all of Diversity Day’s focus on disadvantaged groups through its events and performances.
Live performances included The Dubshak Band, a local all-Black dance group that taught attendees how to perform various South African dances and movements, such as those meant to encourage a bountiful harvest and those to praise deities for their blessings. The band encouraged audience participation by moving in and out of the crowd of students, urging them to join in.
The event also included a variety of student organizations and clubs, most of them focused on diversity and representation. Tables advertising these clubs were held in Penfield Hall and included representatives from the Spanish Club, the Vietnamese Student Association, the National Council of Negro Women and Mercer Common Ground.
A variety of food trucks were also situated across Cruz, featuring local restaurants from many different cultural backgrounds, such as hibachi, Mexican tacos and Asian fusion style offerings.
The renaming of Diversity Day generated controversy amongst the student body. Posters advertising BearFest were covered up across campus, most notably those near Wiggs Hall, where the name "BearFest" was covered with reprinted advertisements of previous years’ Diversity Day events.
“It’s definitely got something to do with DEI policies,” Dominic Sampson ‘28 said, speaking about the university’s decision to rename the event.
As previously covered by The Cluster, Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Douglas Pearson ascribes DEI changes by the university as being due to guidelines sent in a letter from Craig Trainor, the assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education, who addressed universities that receive public funding in a Feb. 14 letter.
The letter contains warnings to the universities to “cease all efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such ends” to prevent a “potential loss of federal funding.”
Mercer students took to the local social media app YikYak to express their frustrations at the University’s decision to capitulate to the letter’s requests. YikYak is a popular social media app on campus that allows anyone within a five-mile radius to anonymously text on a board and make posts freely.
Some students on the app urged the university to stand up for its principles, regardless of a potential loss of funding.
“It’s just embarrassing that our institution lays down and rolls over for Donald Trump,” an anonymous student said, “federal issues are tackled from the ground up.”
Others argued against the defacement of school property, making the case that students should be wary of the event’s organizers being affected.
“For the sake of the people organizing these events but forced into changing the program’s name, please do not replicate [covering the signs],” an anonymous post said.
Another wrote, “change needs to happen, but with this knowledge, I hope that we can resist and protect in ways that will not harm those caught in the crossfire.”
Jacob Hossler '28 is majoring in Biology with a potential English minor. In his free time he enjoys photography, writing, and playing tennis and soccer.
