This winter marks the first full term that the Multicultural Center and Black Student Center are open.
Both centers are open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends. The buildings are located along the path from Musser Hall to downtown Northfield, on the bottom floor of the Union Street 1 and 2 buildings, which house the Office of Intercultural Life’s (OIL) townhouse-style cultural house communities on the upper floors.
The Multicultural Center was designed as a drop-in common hangout space but also contains facilities for meetings and gatherings, such as a large conference room that its associated website describes as having “state of the art audio-visual technology,” a meeting room with a projector, and a meeting room with whiteboards. There is also an industrial kitchen with two stoves, ovens, microwaves, sinks and refrigerators.
“I think the vision is that it’s heavily utilized by the community, and it’s almost a little bit of a hub — if you think of Sayles being a hub, this should be a hub as well,” said Vice President of Student Life Carolyn Livingston. “I don’t think it’ll take long at all.”
The buildings were constructed as part of the multi-year Student Life and Housing Plan. The plan, which is published online, states that a key objective is to “establish community spaces to support interest and cultural housing programs and build community among our diverse student populations.” According to the FAQ, community input for these plans was taken from student focus groups in 2019 and 2020.
Tiffany Nyamao ’25, a supervisor at the Multicultural Center, said she has been hearing about the centers since she arrived at Carleton.
“It was in talks for a long time because the original houses that sat on these areas were old and needed to come down,” said Nyamao. “It was a matter of ‘how do you make a new space that gives housing but also addresses the needs of POC students?’”
Nyamao said she felt like the new centers were needed on campus, especially to support the cultural organizations.
“I also know that with the cultural orgs, there was an issue of not really knowing where to go on campus because there were not many rooms to reserve, and the rooms to reserve were very academic and sterile,” Nyamao said.
Livingston said she had heard these sentiments from students before. “A lot of the feedback we got from students, particularly the cultural houses, was that they felt this extraordinary pressure to have events in their house, and they wanted it to be primarily a residential space, not a community gathering space all the time,” Livingston said.
In response to this feedback, the Multicultural Center also includes four student organization locker spaces so leaders do not have to store items in their houses or residential halls.
“I love it,” said Nyamao, speaking about the Multicultural Center. She pointed out that the conference room had the most developed technology on campus and that the space could easily be used for events like movie nights or karaoke. Although the students who worked for OIL or the Multicultural Center were excited about the new buildings, they brought up concerns of visibility among the rest of the campus population.
“Obviously, I know about the Multicultural Center, but I was shocked talking to some other students that they have no idea what’s going on,” said Makayla Clark ’27, who is an OIL peer leader.
Livingston sent out an announcement email during the last week of Fall Term, but there has not been an official launch for students beyond that.
“I wonder just how many white students on campus know about it that aren’t involved with anything related to OIL or whatever,” said Clark. “Like, what are the odds of them knowing about this space?”
Clark also said that the limited open hours and student confusion about permission needed to use the rooms could be a source of worry for people wanting to utilize the space.
“When I was working there, we had to kick people out at 10, if you were the last worker there, and I don’t understand why if it is supposed to be a space for students, there would have to be a closing period,” said Clark, comparing the space to Sayles, which is open all night.
Rachel Punter ’28 had heard about the new spaces but thought not enough information about them had been communicated to students.“When am I allowed to go?” she asked. “When is it even open? I could not tell you. I really don’t know where it is either.”
Punter said that these concerns made her nervous to visit.
Livingston said that a launch for faculty had been done over the break and that one was planned for students “probably in a couple of weeks.” In addition, she said that there are plans to put up more permanent signage labeling the two centers.
She also noted that in most cases, only the largest conference room needs prior reservation and that the Black Student Center is first-come, first-serve.
In terms of who can use the space, Livingston wants everyone to feel welcome in the center.
“When we say multicultural, we mean it’s a space for the entire community,” she said. “With an emphasis on students of color, however, it’s really for everybody to come and experience the community. And that’s why we didn’t call it one specific ethnicity or whatever. Anybody can use it.”