Vice President of Student Affairs James Eiseman and Provost Walter Harris said Tuesday that university officials anticipate that a long-discussed multicultural center will open within the next year.
Outlined by the Rev. William Byron, S.J., interim university president, in his Spring Convocation address to the faculty and staff, a “center for interracial and intercultural understanding” would entail widespread participation from both students and faculty.
According to Byron’s address, the center will attempt to touch upon eleven points of interest: freshman orientation, new and existing course offerings, training seminars for students, faculty and staff, panel discussions, small mixed-group conversations on selected topics, residence hall seminars, local
and longer-distance travel to neighborhoods, communities, and events that offer learning opportunities, on-campus culinary events, photography and art exhibits, exposure to the music of different cultures, and interfaith prayer and liturgical experiences.
Marketing senior and Student Government Association president Bea Forlano said that the campaign is a sign of great progress.
“This really is one of the main things we wanted,” she said. “There is always more that you can do, but we were definitely happy with the decision to form a multicultural center.”
When Forlano appeared before the Board of Trustees on Nov. 21, the campus was in the midst of a spree of racially-motivated instances of vandalism.
Several campus groups under the leadership of the SGA, including La Gente, the Black Student Union and Etcetera had organized for a silent sit-in protest at the board’s meeting in Greenville Hall on the Broadway Campus.
The 150 or so students remained outside for most of the afternoon in a stand aginst several racially-motivated incidents, including a flyer that was posted in Mercy Hall by a group claiming to be “Students for a White Loyola.”
That flyer attacked blacks, homosexuals and Latinos, but Forlano’s address to the board that day included a dossier on racial incidents dating back to 1997.
In her address, Forlano questioned what actions were being taken by the administration and why none of the committees, formed in response to past incidents, had seemed to produce any long-term results.
“Students are frustrated and disappointed,” Forlano had written in her report issued at the November board meeting.
She had been one of three students on a Presidential Task Force on Multiculturalism formed by former university president Rev. Bernard Knoth, but she questioned why the committee hadn’t met since March.
However, she said the committee will meet today to discuss the formation of the multicultural center. As specified by Byron, Harris and Eiseman will co-head the committee, which is expected to rely heavily on student input.
At front, Director of Residential Life Robert Reed, sociology senior and SGA vice president Mary Grace Stewart, marketing senior and SGA president Bea Forlano, and international business freshman and SGA representative Sam Cabrera listen to administrators outline a proposed “center for interracial and intercultural understanding.” (Lizzie Ford-Madrid)
