Last spring BSA held its first annual intercollegiate black students' conference, and earlier this semester the club held a conference on the future of affirmative action. Recently, BSA also held a conference on the African diaspora.

Next Saturday, the club will host a hip-hop conference boasting such groups as Digable Planets, Supernatural, Naughty by Nature, Zulu Nation, Souls of Mischief and Mic Geronimo and the rapper Bahamadia, Fraser said.

She also said that Minister Conrad Muhammad, "minister of the mosque in Harlem where Louis Farrakhan and Malcolm X used to preach," will be in attendance.

The Saturday morning portion will include three panel discussions on "rap, reality and social responsibility" and a concert will follow in the evening, Fraser said. The conference will also focus on the connection between hip-hop music, black power and social responsibility, she said.

BSA members take their responsibility to the community seriously, said Fraser. Next year, they will plan a five-day conference in March about "Africa in the 21st century and the black American's responsibility to Africa," she said.

But the organization is not all work and no play.

James said that next year, the officers hope to "increase unity among the black students, to make them feel like they still have family away from home."

The other new BSA officers include: McComma Grayson '00, treasurer; Andwele J. Lewis '98, senior representative; Jason B. Phillips '99, publicity chair; Afrah D. Richmond '98, publications chair; Uche A. Blackstock '99, historian; Lani "Sohani" Holland '99, public-relations chair; Nicole K. Sherwood '00, social and political chair; Mark A. Thompson '98, Harvard Foundation representative, and Peter "Alex" A. Kellogg '99, arts and entertainment chair.

Williamson was out of town yesterday and could not be reached for comment