ASUC Senate Unites Behind Multicultural Center Accord

Ending more than five years of debate, the ASUC Senate unanimously approved an agreement yesterday night outlining the operation of the campus's multicultural center and keeping it in its temporary home for another three years.

The center, which was promised to open by 2004, has been temporarily housed in the Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Heller Lounge while ASUC officials, administrators and student groups clashed over how the center should be run.

The agreement calls for the center to stay in its temporary home at Heller Lounge, and calls on the university to put in a "good faith effort" at searching out a permanent location.

Yesterday's unanimous vote, which came after just 20 minutes of deliberation, fulfills a promise made by former Chancellor Robert Berdahl in 1999 to establish a campus multicultural center, after members of the Third World Liberation Front launched a hunger strike protesting cuts to the ethnic studies program.

"I think today we made history," said ASUC Executive Vice President Anil Daryani. "People broke party lines and came together for a common cause."

The only change made to the memorandum was a slight amendment allowing the ASUC Senate to have power to approve reallocation of the Heller Lounge space when the time comes in three years.

The newly passed memorandum of understanding, which outlines the operation of the center, was drafted as a collaborative effort over the summer.

"I think this (memorandum) is really, truly a win-win situation for all

students and for the campus as a whole," said Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education Christina Maslach, who was present at the meeting.

Under the new plan, the operations and programming of the center will be divided into two separate oversight boards, which officials hope will minimize conflict between the two sides.

While the chancellor still needs to sign off on the memorandum before it can officially go into effect, Maslach said the approval would come quickly.

"The chancellor is in full support of this (memorandum). He is prepared to sign it as soon as it is passed," she said.

Front members who were at the meeting said the memorandum's passing will pave the way for real progress.

"After working on the multicultural center since I was a freshman, it was really relieving and exciting that we finally came to an agreement with both the ASUC and the university," said junior Justine Lazaro, a front member. "I'm really optimistic about establishing a permanent multicultural center, seeing that tonight the working relations proved successful."

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