Multicultural center location, name nears final recommendation
Students have played an active role in the planning of a new multicultural center at the University of South Dakota.
After the USD executive committee approved the proposal for the center, plans for a location, name and purpose are to be decided with the help of consultants and students so it can be opened in fall 2014.
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Kimberly Grieve, vice president for Student Services and Dean of Students, said she and Jesus Trevino, associate vice president of diversity, along with others on the committee, have been collaborating as the school year comes to an end and plans need to be finished.
“We’ve worked in a lot of different ways with outside specialists as well as with students, but students have really been pushing for it for a couple of years so we are really, really excited,” Grieve said.
An open forum between a total of 15 USD students and Trevino Dec. 5, 2013 allowed them to express their opinions and concerns for the center after a proposal presentation.
Trevino and Grieve have been working with Joe Bilotta, the space consultant for USD from JBA Incorporated, and recently met with him to discuss more ideas and provide a better vision of what they would like to have in the center.
Trevino said the old temporary student union was the last location to be discussed. The options have been narrowed to two different spots, Grieve said, but she would not disclose them.
“(Those locations) would displace other people and so they don’t know about it, so I’m not trying to hold something back but I don’t want it to be announced when other people may have those offices,” Grieve said.
Grieve did give factors that were taken into consideration with the location-deciding process. The committee would like the center to be in a high traffic area, have smaller spaces available to smaller group meetings and a larger space made for collaboration between various groups.
“It’s very important to us that they’ll not only have a space but they’ll also have a collaborative space and that all students will be welcome, not just underserved, minority communities,” Grieve said.
Once Bilotta comes up with a recommendation for a location, set to come in the next few weeks, Grieve said, he will present it to the executive council. Depending on what the executive council decides, the plans will move forward.
In the fall, when the center is in place, an official name will be decided after collaboration with students. Trevino said potential names could be “The Center for Community and Diversity” or “The Center for Inclusive Excellence.”
Trevino said a director for the space is to be decided by the fall as well. He said the person to hold this position needs to be someone who has an open mind while working with different communities.
“It’s a person that actually thinks of diversity very broadly because that’s what we’re doing here at the university that’s different from other universities,” Trevino said. “A lot of universities are only looking at it from the perspective that diversity is race and ethnicity only.”
The space will be open to all students, with some of the space being used by larger minority organizations, Grieve said.
“We’re trying to create a center that is for the entire campus and that any student, coming from a small town in South Dakota, will say, ‘That’s a center for me, I want to go there and I want to explore issues of diversity,'” Trevino said.
He said the purpose of the center would be to ensure that not only students but members of the community, are engaged in diversity through projects or discussion.
USD Student Government Association President Tyler Tordsen sees the center as an excellent step in the right direction for the campus, a place that will be all-encompassing.
He envisions the center serving as a place for students to study, a fun atmosphere for different activities and engagement and a learning site.
“This place is going to be a welcoming environment for everybody, for the entire university, and I hope everybody embraces it and enjoys it and utilizes it,” Tordsen said.
He said the center is something most people have not thought of and it will create multiple opportunities for students on campus.
“We’re really, really excited to have this space identified and begin to be used,” Grieve said.
