UW-Madison administrators detailed plans Wednesday for the Black Cultural Center, and how to best provide space for historically marginalized groups on campus to student leaders who critiqued only housing these groups in the Red Gym.
Gabe Javier,
“The Black Cultural Center in this location is a really great opportunity because it will provide a model for us to serve other racial ethnic groups or minority groups,” Javier said.
Dean of Students Lori Berquam and Vice Chair for Finance and Administration Laurent Heller addressed a need to redesign campus spaces to serve more students. Berquam stated that the Red Gym was originally intended to be a global village for students to feel they belong, feel included and learn from each other.
However, some members of ASM expressed concerns that all minority groups could be placed in one building.
“Are we looking to shove all marginalized groups into the Red Gym and call it our diversity hub?” asked ASM Chair Carmen Goséy. “I can't talk about having a safe space on campus if that space is one building.”
Javier countered that a central location has benefits.
“There is a really great feel in that building,” Javier said. “It really does lend itself to some really amazing, strong, powerful collaborations among intersections of identity.”
Equity and Inclusion Chair Ali Khan said that he liked having the Multicultural Student Center and LGBTCC in the Red Gym because they serve many intersectional identities. But Khan suggested having satellite centers across campus would provide groups their own space and help spread diversity.
Ariela Rivkin, chair of the grant allocation committee, said she felt the group's goal was twofold.
Rivkin said the starting point is “to give marginalized students … a space to feel safe, to feel at home,” but the ultimate goal is “to take the conversations being had in those spaces to teach everyone else, to show everyone else, or include everyone else in those conversations.”
