SAAC Members Energized as an Idea Becomes Reality
Acosta, Golaube power project for Black LIves Matter T-shirts
Mike Brohard
Jordan Acosta felt the inspiration. Then she started to create a digital design.
The Colorado State softball player was moved by the protests taking place across the country as a summer of social unrest motivated citizens to speak out. Acosta wanted to take it a step further, designing a T-shirt she hoped her fellow student-athletes at the university could wear to show support.
Then she called Kamal-Craig Golaube, a track athlete and the Student-Athlete Advisory Council’s director of inclusion and diversity, to share her vision.
“It was amazing. It was important because I feel like now, the time where students are actually using their voices, it’s good to see that representation where it’s not just students who recognize as colored,” Golaube said. “It’s students looking for change in the system in general. It was amazing that she had the initiative to come together through student-athletes to make it more prominent and clear there is an issue out there.”
Acosta wasn’t just in her house thinking. She used her summer to support the Black Lives Matter cause, but she also wanted to bring that voice to campus with her, and she knew there were others who would join the chorus.
In her mind, she could see Black Lives Matters on a T-shirt, along with the Colorado State logo. She could envision it being worn across campus. She wanted the student-athletes to be able to get them for free. She also hoped they could collect donations for causes on campus and beyond.
Now she needed a way to turn inspiration into production.
She and Golaube, both SAAC members, took it to the rest of the council, where it met with rave reviews. Golaube pitched the idea to the Together Initiative, where he is the student representative on the leadership council. During the discussion, he found there were roadblocks. He also found there were willing voices from athletic administration to help avoid them, with athletic director Joe Parker and Steve Cottingham, the deputy director of athletics, meeting each stumbling block with a solution.
Cottingham wasn’t surprised by the idea, but he was definitely encouraged to see student-athletes taking action. That was all the inspiration he said he needed.
“It’s the right thing to do. I think given the times we are in, the Together Initiative was a sincere attempt to respond and pull our student-athletes, employees and others in the community together,” Cottingham said. “You put your money where your mouth is, and that implies some follow through and support. The Together Initiative is a genuine effort, and we want to support it as we can even in a challenging budget year.”
It’s students looking for change in the system in general. It was amazing that she had the initiative to come together through student-athletes to make it more prominent and clear there is an issue out there.Kamal-Craig Golaube, Track Athlete and SAAC Member
So the athletic department offered up part of its apparel trade agreement with Under Armour so SAAC would not have to pay for the T-shirts. When it came to printing, Cottingham said the department would pick up the tab.
Katie Wimp immediately offered her services, taking care of the ordering and printing after the project was cleared.
She’s just in her first year as CSU’s associate head equipment manager for Olympic Sports, but in stops along the way, she relishes when student-athletes take an active role in the design of what they wear. She’s helped bring those designs to life before, and this cause hit her as a little more special.
“I can see the leadership coming from our student-athletes, and I know one day we’re going to see these kids as politicians, as leaders in society, coaches,” she said. “I know where they’re going, and it’s so exciting to watch them grow.”
As for donations, the university cannot collect money, but when student-athletes pick up their shirts, they can use a QR code to make a suggested donation to one of four groups -- The Black/African-American Cultural Center (BACC) at CSU; the It Gets Better project; Color of Change; and the Equal Justice Initiative.
Acosta and Golaube each picked two of the organizations, a mixture of local and national causes. More than 500 T-shirts have been printed, enough for each student-athlete on campus and for staff of the athletic department.
The black T-shirts have ‘Black Lives Matter’ across the front, underneath the Rams’ head logo. On the back, ‘Colorado State Rams’ runs down the spine, while the logo for the Together Initiative (Together.) is on the left sleeve.
“It’s actually crazy. I remember drawing up those designs, and I was scribbling on my iPad,” Acosta said. “To see Joe Cooper (of Rams Creative, who gives all credit for the design to Acosta) be able to make it come to life was just … Man, it was incredible. Kamal and I were almost in tears of happiness.”
The T-shirts are free, and student-athletes are not required to pick one up or make a donation. The shirts will be available on Thursday and Friday (5:45-10:15 a.m.) outside the weight room and Anderson Academic Center to correspond with the student-athlete’s daily wellness check-in; the football team will pick theirs up after checking in between 5:50-7 a.m. on Friday. Those who cannot pick up their shirts at that time can contact Wimp for an alternate pick-up. T-shirts for the staff will be distributed the following week.
After taking bids for printing, Acosta was even more excited, as they went with a CSU graduate. In short, her initial hopes have been exceeded.
“I think it’s always a great thing when people are behind change and things that matter,” Acosta said. “I’m so overwhelmed with being able to have an impact on athletics, and I think the greater thing for me is over the summer I tried to reroute where we were doing our merchandise printing. One of the things that’s super exciting is we’re utilizing the Green and Gold Shop with Vincent Booker and helping keep a local Black-owned business going. To have him be a part of it and seeing CSU student-athletes representing Black Lives Matter as such a prominent force within the athletics department and with our peers, it will be such an amazing thing to see.”