What used to be the Center for Intercultural Understanding has become the Center for Loyola Public Relations. Since Loyola’s administrators remodeled the room next to the bookstore into the Culture Room, it has failed to live up to its intended purposes. In an interview with the Maroon earlier this semester, Chris Cameron, director of co-curricular programs, said the purpose of the Culture Room was for student organizations to create displays and to “reach students who wouldn’t otherwise engage in dialogue.”
The Culture Room is not engaging. It is not inviting, and the only reason people step in for a moment is to avoid the crowds coming from Flambeaux’s.
When the Center for Intercultural Understanding was still adjacent to the bookstore, instead of on the second floor of the Danna Center, students used to gather to fellowship, discuss their futures and seek assistance with race-based issues. If the goal was to encourage more students to come together to do this, the university has failed miserably.
The heart of the problem lies in a lack of central governing. To encourage people of different backgrounds to understand each other and to dispel religious, racial, sexist and sexual-orientation prejudices is a high charge, and it’s not going to happen just as random student organizations come forward and say they want to set up a display.
Cameron stated in the same interview the other purpose of the Culture Room was to celebrate the student body’s diversity. Instead, it has hosted written reflections of the students who evacuated with Residential Life, looped videos of students explaining what they like about Loyola and projected slideshows of sexual harassment statistics in conjunction with the annual anti-assault protest Take Back the Night.
The function of the room has become little more than public relations for the university that students ignore. Even museums provide benches to view exhibits — but students would probably just sleep on them anyway.
The Culture Room should provide a place to create real dialogue, but for now it’s just a waste of space. If Loyola wants to make this room a place where complex, controversial cultural issues are addressed, it’s going to take purposeful action from the student body and the administration.
Make the Culture Room more interactive. Hold meetings and discussions such as the upcoming “Soup and Substance” panel discussion and the “I Am Not Tolerant” meeting in the Culture Room. Place chairs in the room so students have another venue where they can talk with friends between classes, and maybe a photo, a statement or a piece of art can spark a conversation.
Recognize that the Culture Room is a tool for any campus issue that needs to be addressed. Student leaders, take advantage of this tool. Don’t let the administration fill it with something just to fill space. Don’t use it to promote events — hold the events there.
Bring speakers into the most traffic-heavy area of the university; give your own speech. Hold a protest, post a sign, start a dialogue board. As a group effort, maybe we can take back the Culture Room. We might even drown out those muddled noises from the speakers.
