Latinx Student Resource Center

After years of advocacy for a permanent space, the Latine community should not have to compromise — especially at a campus that intends to cultivate and serve its diverse community.

After three relocations and multiple discussions with campus to establish a permanent space, the Latinx Student Resource Center, or LSRC, faces further challenges after losing $800,000 in funding.

The Latinx Caucus met with UC Berkeley administration and Chancellor Carol Christ in a sit-down meeting on Monday to discuss its concerns and demands regarding the welfare and success of the Latine community at Berkeley. 

Social media activism can be beneficial to social campaigns, but can also lead to performative activism on parts of individuals, community members and institutions.

UC Berkeley researchers recently published a study on the stagnation of the Latine studies major throughout the United States. The research cites that there is “significantly more to be done to ensure Latino equity and thriving in higher education” based on their findings, led by campus professors G. Cristina Mora and Nicholas Vargas and undergraduate student researcher Dominic Cedillo.

The Latinx Caucus at UC Berkeley submitted a letter to Chancellor Carol Christ on Jan. 12 regarding the needs and issues facing Latine students. The letter emphasized finding a new temporary space for their Latinx Student Resource Center, or LSRC, which has been without a meeting space since Dec. 8, alongside demands for financial aid reevaluation, affordable housing and further retention efforts.

With the opening of the UC Berkeley Latinx Student Resource Center, or LSRC, at the beginning of the fall semester, campus Latine students have finally secured a physical space dedicated to offering them a sense of community and belonging.

To be a Hispanic-serving institution, or HSI, at least 25% of a not-for-profit institution’s full-time undergraduates must be Hispanic. Today, 21 of the 23 CSU campuses and six of the nine UC campuses with undergraduate education are HSIs. UC Berkeley, currently, is not.