Professionals Symposium to Feature ‘Boondocks’ Cartoonist

In addition to workshops and career networking sessions, the annual Professionals Symposium taking place Friday-Sunday, October 26-28, will feature a keynote address by Aaron McGruder, creator of the comic strip The Boondocks. Now in its 16th year, the symposium will for the first time coincide with Homecoming weekend, to provide greater opportunities for current students and alumni to come together.

"The events of this weekend afford opportunities for undergraduates to meet and network with alumni and supporters of the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Ithaca Opportunity Program, Higher Education Opportunity Program, and Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program, as well as all ALANA [African, Latino, Asian, and Native American] students," says Roger Richardson, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs. "We encourage all faculty, staff, and students to join us on Friday and Saturday for these programs."

Titled "Coming Home: Creating a Vision for Your Future," the symposium will kick off on Friday afternoon with alumni/student career sessions. McGruder will give the first of his two scheduled public presentations --- this one being free --- at 8:00 p.m. in the recital hall of the Whalen Center, to be followed by a reception hosted by Southern Tier ALANA alumni and the Ithaca College Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Saturday’s order of activities includes breakfast and workshops from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., an update on College activities and developments presented by President Peggy R. Williams at 10:45 a.m., and a career networking brunch at 11:15 a.m. The capstone event --- the annual awards banquet --- will be held from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in the Emerson Suites, with McGruder delivering the keynote address. There is a charge for the banquet; for ticket information call 274-3381.

McGruder was a college student in the 1990s when --- dissatisfied with both college and the comic-book world --- he decided to create a comic strip inspired by his love of hip-hop culture and reflective of the true racial diversity and complexity of the world he lived in. The result was The Boondocks, the story of a group of African American city kids adjusting to life in mostly white suburbia. Combining childhood antics with contemporary political and social satire, the strip explores the terrain where dashikis and Brand Nubian CDs meet the Gap and Hanson.

After an initial run on the Internet, The Boondocks made its print debut in 1997 in the Diamondback, the independent student newspaper of the University of Maryland, where McGruder was an undergraduate. The strip drew rave reviews and, before long, national attention. After McGruder graduated with a degree in African American studies, his strip was picked up by the Source, one of the nation’s largest urban music magazines. Today The Boondocks appears in 210 newspapers, including the Ithaca Journal. The strip’s goals, says McGruder, are to provoke thought, help improve the state of racial discourse, and expand the realm of humor in comics pages.

The weekend will conclude on Sunday with a farewell brunch hosted by Southern Tier ALANA alumni. The Professionals Symposium is sponsored by the Ithaca College Offices of Multicultural Affairs, Alumni Relations, and Career Services, with partial funding from the New York State Education Department.