Shocker Hall holds various Living Learning Communities around its five floors. Last year, Omarian Brantley, alongside JDaijon Sumpter, created another to add to the list: the Black Excellence Floor. 

The Black Excellence Floor, like other Living Learning Communities, offers a space for freshmen with similar experiences and interests to meet people. 

“That way they can have a core group of people that they can be surrounded with as they experience life at a PWI (predominantly white institution),” Brantley said.

Brantley wears a few different hats on campus. He’s the undergraduate student advocate in SGA, meaning he deals with items like traffic appeals, bias reports and any other concerns students have. He’s also the Black Student Union (BSU) president, now for 2 years.

BSU offers students Black students a community and opportunities for scholarships, leadership and more. The hosts and sponsors a variety of different events throughout the school year.

“(I’m) just trying to do what I can to deliver an experience to black students,” Brantley said.

Last year, Brantley started another effort in addition to the new learning community. He began dipping into his own pockets to buy Black hair products to put on the Black Excellence Floor.

“For a lot of Black people, hair is very much a part of their confidence,” Brantley said. “A bad hair day can equal a bad day in general, and a lot of black products are hard to find.”

Brantley said he refills the box whenever he can. The box contains various items, like oils, scarves, wraps, combs, and other haircare items. 

“At the end of the day, I’m helping people which is why all the haircare boxes have come out of my own personal pocket,” Brantley said. 

Currently, Brantley is the only one who puts products in Shocker Hall, but he hopes to make it a group effort, especially since this semester is his last at WSU.

“I’m hoping that there’s someone out there who sees this Black haircare thing and wants to take it and make it something even bigger,” Brantley said. “That’s the goal, as a leader in general, is to hope … someone sees potential in it, and they want to take it over and follow in your footsteps,” Brantley said.

Since Shocker Hall’s upper floors are closed off to non-residents, individuals who don’t live in the building will not have access to the products. Brantley hopes that someone will push the effort farther and try to bring products to other dormitories on campus, like The Flats and The Suites.

Those who live in Shocker Hall and need haircare products can go to floor C0 to see if the box has what they need. 

Those interested in continuing Brantley’s efforts can reach out to him at [email protected].