As discussions continue about the creation of a permanent multicultural center on campus, administrators have decided to rearrange some current space to fill needs in the meantime.
Planning is currently underway to renovate the space now held by the Craft Center on the bottom floor of the Bryan Center. The work is expected to take place over winter break, with student cultural groups having access to the space as early as spring 2002 for meetings, programming and as a lounge area.
"It's really a great space for what we want to do," said Julian Sanchez, director of the Office of Intercultural Affairs. "One part of it creates a resource center with book collections and a multipurpose space for meeting, and another portion can be a living room or lounge space."
OIA offices will move to the Craft Center space from their current location in the West Union Building, which will likely be converted to a small, temporary gallery for the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture. Cultural groups will retain their current office space on the Bryan Center's top floor and use the Craft Center area for other activities.
Cultural groups have been trying for years to find more social and activity space on campus, and several reports have echoed that effort. The latest report was issued in May by the Cultural Space Committee, which recommended a permanent multicultural center and an expansion of the Mary Lou Williams Center.
Sanchez and several student leaders expressed confidence that the interim space is a productive step toward the establishment of a more permanent center. The decision to create the interim space was made by Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs. In May, the Board of Trustees granted him the authority to allocate all student residential and social space.
"I hope it will just be another welcoming, wonderful hangout," Moneta said. "I hope that it both serves as a place to hang out, with a multicultural atmosphere and resources, but also a place where a student group could hold a meeting, or where a display of cultural arts could occur."
Long-term plans for a multicultural center and the Mary Lou Williams Center will have to wait until the construction of the new building and parking garage next to the Bryan Center, Moneta added.
Exact statistics on use of the Craft Center are not available, but "the numbers are fairly low," said Brady Beecham, president of the Duke University Union, which oversees the Craft Center and advises the University on Bryan Center use. She noted that the center is currently split between two locations in the Bryan Center and Southgate Dormitory, and that the move out of the Bryan Center will help coordinate the program.
"We really hope that this will be an opportunity to consolidate them into one location," Beecham said. "The Craft Center has fairly low visibility right now, and by running two different locations you need to have two sets of work-study students and two different administrative systems."
Beecham and others said that the Craft Center space will work well as a meeting point for all students, especially members of cultural groups.
"It will be pretty visible because it's all clear glass," said senior Sean Young, a member of the Cultural Space Committee. "The disadvantage is that it's still in a corner-type location, but I think that is more than made up for by the large area. The other option is taking the existing cultural offices, but that location, even though it's on the top floor of the Bryan Center, is even less visible than the Craft Center."
Troy Clair, a junior and president of the Black Student Alliance, also served on the space committee last year, and said that the interim space speaks to the needs described in the report.
"It'll have some presence in the Bryan Center and really start to act on some of the recommendations of the cultural space report," Clair said. "I'm definitely happy that we're doing something now and that this generation of students will be able to see something in the form of a multicultural center."
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