Several University students are heading efforts to create a multi-cultural center to be housed within the proposed new student center.
When Student Council proposed the New Student Center last fall, third-year Asian Student Union president Ryan McCarthy, fourth-year former ASU president Janis Millette and fourth-year La Sociedad Latina president Greg Staff started thinking about the possibility of a space for multi-cultural affairs.
This semester, McCarthy, Millete and Staff met with third-year College student Steven Reinemund, chairman of the new student center committee.
McCarthy and Millette said Reinemund was very receptive to including a multi-cultural center in the new student center for which the University plans to break ground in spring 2003.
Students also have met recently with Vice President of Student Affairs Patricia Lampkin and Assistant Deans of Students Ajay Nair and Pablo Davis to discuss their ideas for the center.
This is not the first time that students have proposed an on-Grounds multi-cultural center. In 1997, students urged University officials to create a multi-cultural center when they rallied for a position within the Office of the Dean of Students for someone to serve as an advocate to the Asian community. The new deanship was created, but the center proposal was passed over.
The students involved would like to see the center function as either an "ethnic-specific" resource or a "multi-cultural" resource, McCarthy said.
An "ethnic-specific" resource would function much like the Office of African American Affairs, with resources specifically for Asian American and Latino students. This type of center would focus on the issues that directly affect the Asian American and Latino communities. A "multi-cultural" resource would focus more generally on all races and ethnicities.
"These centers would in no way be limited to Asian Americans or Latino students," Millette said. "It is hoped that the larger community will enter the space and want to learn more."
Resources at the center would include books, meeting space for clubs and organizations, an alumni network, and a program director who would plan events such as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in April.
The University is one of few public universities in Virginia that does not already have something comparable to a multi-cultural resource center, McCarthy said.
Old Dominion Univeristy, James Madison University, George Mason University and the College of William & Mary have multi-cultural centers available to students, Millette said.
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