The Sabatini Multicultural Resource Center will open the doors of its new facility in January after seven years of planning.
Student Senate established the Multicultural Resource Center, a program of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, in 1991. The MRC works to promote diversity and acceptance on KU’s campus and through student organizations and academic programs.
The current center is in a 2,470-square-foot military annex behind Summerfield Hall. With 6,000 visitors a year, the MRC needed a new facility.
“We’ve clearly run out of space,” said Santos Nunez, program director for the Multicultural Resource Center.
Current Multicultural Resource Center behind Summerfield Hall.
The MRC presented the idea to build a new center to the University administration in 2001 and the following year Student Senate presidential candidates listed a new center on their platforms. In 2003, the University decided to move forward with its plans to build a new MRC and construction started in May 2006. The University provided funds for the $2.7 million building, along with a $1 million donation from the Sabatini family and $1.5 million in student fees. The Sabatini Family Foundation of Topeka has donated millions of dollars to the University, including donations for the School of Education’s Strategic Learning Center and professorships in Roman Catholic thought and modern Jewish studies for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Alex Porte, Great Falls, Va., sophomore and student body assistant treasurer, said that students currently pay $3.50 each semester to cover the construction fee. Student Senate introduced the fee in 2005 and will continue until 2012. Porte said students also pay $1.50 per semester for the Multicultural Education Fund.
The new 7,000-sqaure-foot center is attached to the northeast side of the Kansas Union. David Mucci, director of KU Memorial Unions, said that the new MRC will attract more people to the union and will provide diversity for students.
“MRC programming will extend the idea of cultural understanding and bring exciting activities to our part of the campus,” he said. “It will help bring the campus together.”
The new center’s amenities include updated technology, more resources for student groups, more study space for the MRC’s tutoring group, SOAR (Students Obtaining Academic Resources), and lounges for students. Student Senate also gave $20,000 for a digital screen that will hang in the hallway connecting the union and the MRC.
Along with the new building, the MRC will control Student Senate’s multicultural education fund. The two organizations will work together to decide what student groups will receive funds. The MRC co-sponsors several student groups, including the Black Student Union, Queers and Allies and the Hispanic Leadership Organization. The new center will provide resources for these groups.
“ It makes it easier to network with other student groups on campus,” said Ebony Howard, Fort Worth, Texas, senior and president of the Black Student Union. “The MRC will enrich any student’s college experience.”
Howard said the new center will give students groups like the BSU more space for meetings and social events. And because the Student Involvement Center’s offices are in the union, all organizations will benefit.
“Having the MRC next to the Student Involvement Center will create more of a partnership for all student groups on campus,” Porte said. “ Any multicultural group knows they can go and get some kind of benefit from the MRC.”
Howard said the MRC is a positive place for minority students to come and feel comfortable.
“ It’s just a good place to hang out and be where you feel like you belong,” she said.
Nunez said that the MRC focused on being environmentally friendly during the construction of the new center. All of the building materials and furniture came from local vendors and the framework is made of recycled steel. KU’s School of Architecture used the building plans for the center as a part of one its semester projects. The colors of the wall paint, furniture and fixtures are based on colors of skin tone. The architects for the center came up with the theme, “the colors of people” to represent the diversity the MRC hopes to promote.
“We felt it would fit in with our own theme of ‘We Are One Community’,” Nunez said. “Through the colors of people we could remember the different people who helped build this building.”
Nunez said a new MRC building is important because KU aims at providing students with multicultural opportunities.
“As our community changes into a global community, our students are demanding a multicultural education,” she said.
The MRC hopes that all students, not just minority groups, will take advantage of what the MRC has to offer KU.
The MRC will open its doors on Jan. 28 and student groups will hold grand opening activities.