It appears there will soon be a Latino(a) Cultural and Resource Center on or nearby the NEIU campus. “After 20 years, the cultural center is becoming a reality,” according to Xavier Luis Burgos, Chief Editor & Designer of ‘Que Ondee Sola’ magazine.
Union for Puerto Rican Students (UPRS) and ‘Que Ondee Sola’ magazine held a panel meeting and discussion during activity hour on Nov. 20, 2008 in CLS-1001 to discuss the upcoming opening of the cultural center. NEIU receives a large amount of state funding because of it’s “Hispanic Serving Institution” status that is recognized by the state. Latino(a) student groups desire to see a cultural center established to meet their specific needs using state funding.
Each panelist present for the discussion has a connection to UPRS, or is connected to the completion of the cultural house/ center in some capacity. Panelists included Eduardo Arabu, Dr. Victor Ortiz, Ruthy Venegas, Erica Granados De La Rosa, Eric Lopez and John Rivera.
Ortiz, program coordinator for Latino & Latin American studies, stated the cultural center will provide students with “…exposure, experience and skills to be successful in society.” Additionally he stated the center will provide the students with “…options, resources and opportunities to further goals.”
Arabu, student trustee, Intercultural Initiative Committee, stated the “space and time for construction and the money for the project has to be used by June 2009.” Arabu made it clear that the main problem is beating the time issue. Arabu stated that he wants to see a leadership program developed for students to obtain skills to be successful in the real world. He also said the center will be an Africano resource center, an Asian resource center and a Latino(a) resource center.
Venegas, president of UPRS and Intercultural Initiative Committee, said “blueprints have been given each week.” She also stated that she felt she wasn’t taken seriously during some meetings about the new center.
Granados, a sociology student at Loyola University described the conditions of the room set aside for the cultural center at Loyola. She stated the center is actually a “room in a basement, it’s difficult to access, no internet is available and there are only a few chairs and a table. There is no cable television and the room is being threatened to be taken away. Loyola doesn’t practice Affirmative Action yet claims diversity. There are 170- 200 Latino students in a school of 15,000 students. There is a poor retention rate of black students.” She also suggested to the audience to “educate yourself on why there should be or shouldn’t be a cultural center.” The NEIU’s UPRS has intentions for a first rate center, a space far different from what Loyola offers.
Rivera, vice president of UPRS at UIC, discussed the benefits of having a cultural center from his experiences at the cultural center at UIC, called “Lecture Center B or Latino Cultural Center.” He stated that when NEIU receives it’s cultural center, movies can be shown like Chicago’s Puerto Rican Story, you can have study sessions, UPRS meetings and movie nights at the Center.
Lopez, an NEIU Alumni and former president of ChiMexLa stated that last year he “initiated the process of the cultural center, met the NEIU President and stated the case for the cultural center” and that he was placed on the presidential steering committee. He stated the Cultural Center would acknowledge a different perspective, offer advising and counseling and engage students in ways that are not being done presently.
Possible locations for the center thus far are the second floor of the Student Union building, the second floor above Beck’s Bookstore, or a house in the surrounding area.
There will be an upcoming meeting where blueprints will hopefully be approved and the process for construction of the center can begin in March 2009.
Burgos stated the “Latino center should be a dignifying space. It has to be more than a study area and event holding area. It will centralize programs and services and be a model; classes can be held there too.”
Recruitment and retention at NEIU are statistical reasons for the center. Latino(a) students comprise 27.1 percent of the population and 41.4 percent of the incoming freshman class. Latino(a) faculty statistics are smaller. There are only 3 Latino(a) professors at NEIU.
Every panelist spoke passionately about the cultural center, which clearly answered the question “Why a cultural center?” At the beginning of the discussion, Erica Granados, a member of UPRS, handed me documents for the discussion and I took the opportunity to ask her about the need for a cultural center. She stated “It’s easier to seek help when you realize you come from the same background and community as the people who will be at the center.”