Michigan State trustees OK construction of long-sought multicultural center
EAST LANSING — The construction of a standalone Michigan State University multicultural center will begin in April after years of demands from students and staff for a facility that meets the needs of underrepresented students.
The MSU Board of Trustees unanimously authorized the construction of a dedicated multicultural center. It will be located at the northeast corner of North Shaw Lane and Farm Lane and west of Shaw Hall in what the university calls the central academic district on the East Lansing campus.
Construction on the $38 million project is expected to begin in April with substantial completion expected in October 2024. Once complete, the new building will be the new home of the university’s multicultural center, MOSAIC: The Multicultural Unity Center, which is now housed on the second floor of the MSU Union.
“This project is a culmination of our community coming together,” said Vennie Gore, senior vice president for Student Life & Engagement. “This truly is a university building.”
Renderings for the project show the future multicultural center will feature multipurpose space, a living room, offices, an amphitheater, porch, backyard and fire circle. It will be constructed in what is now protected green space, which required trustees to also grant a variance to the University Zoning Ordinance.
A 50-point plan to fight racism that MSU released in 1989 in the wake of protests by Black students included opening a multicultural center. It wasn’t until 1999 that the university finally brought a multicultural center to campus. But, it was located in the basement of the MSU Union and students argued that the location didn’t make it a visible part of campus.
In the early 2010s, members of the Council of Racial and Ethnic Students and Black Students’ Alliance President Mario Lemons organized rallies and marches across campus to bring awareness to the basement space that students said failed to meet the needs of underrepresented communities of students, according to the MSU Multicultural Center website.
Former MSU President Lou Anna Simon authorized the multicultural center to move out of the MSU Union’s basement and to a new location. Vice President for Student Affairs and Services Denise Maybank and Multicultural Center Director Chen Hernandez worked with students to design a new space, culminating in the multicultural center moving to the second floor of the MSU Union in 2003. It was renamed MOSAIC: The Multicultural Unity Center.
Students continued petitioning and advocating for the construction of a standalone multicultural center in the following years.
Gore and other speakers mentioned students like Miracle Chatman, an MSU alumnus and a former student representative on the planning committee, and Sharron Reed-Davis, former president of the MSU Black Students’ Alliance, as being instrumental in bringing the multicultural center project to campus.
Associated Students of MSU first passed a bill calling on MSU to build a standalone multicultural center on Feb. 2, 2017, said ASMSU President Jo Kovach, and she applauded the trustees for approving the project.
“Today marks a history of MSU standing with students from marginalized communities and providing them a space on campus that is solely theirs,” Kovach said. “ASMSU is extremely excited for this project to break ground.”
Contact Mark Johnson at majohnson2@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByMarkJohnson.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State trustees OK construction of long-sought multicultural center
