Editorial: Giving students a home
If you walk into the west side of the MUC, you walk right past the Student Government Association offices. If you walk into the north door of the Al Neuharth Media Center, you will find our offices, as well as the offices for Coyote News and KAOR Radio.
While we know that the four groups mentioned above serve unique and special purposes to campus, there are other groups who are doing work that deserve more attention and a space.
The Center for Diversity and Community (CDC) is a space that serves students who may not otherwise have a space for them to feel at home.
“The Center for Diversity and Community is here to serve the diversity and inclusiveness needs of the USD student body,” the USD website page for the CDC states. “Our office utilizes a broad and inclusive definition of diversity that includes disability, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, race/ethnicity, nationality, veteran status and other social identities that are part of the campus community.”
The CDC has been a home for minorities, whether it be of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender. Students come from all over the country and world to be a part of the USD community, and for many students, the CDC gives them a space to be at home.
The university held stakeholder meetings for student organizations on campus over the last week. The Volante was able to attend one of the meetings, and it was shared that the CDC violates a Board of Regents policy stating that access to facilities should be equally available to all student organizations regardless of ideological, political or religious beliefs, as stated in the South Dakota Board of Regents Policy Manual Section 6:13:1, Item 5.4.
These stakeholder meetings pertained to the planned Opportunity Center that will be implemented on campus Jan. 1, 2022. One of the reasons for change in the CDC’s operations is to prevent violations of the previously mentioned policy.
The student organizations, like Spectrum and Tiospaye, who have been vocal about their opposition to the proposed changes to the CDC, deserve a space where students of all walks of life feel welcome.
Students of color and different backgrounds feel safe in the CDC. LGBTQ students feel safe in the CDC. International students feel safe in the CDC. A simple name change won’t stop that, but an overhaul of the CDC, removing the spaces for these groups to operate, will.
No, not every student organization on campus has to have a physical space to operate, but the student organizations housed in the CDC have a safe space where they are allowed to be themselves without judgement. Removing those groups from their space is removing a space for students to feel at home away from home.
