News
Octobcr 1, 1991
BCC: No Location Chosen Yet, Officials Say
By Jacqueline Charles
Ink Staff Writer
When the glass doors to the
Black Cultural Center in the Stu-
dentUnion were opened three years
ago, students were told that the
location would be temporary.
However, despite the center’s
growth and demands by students
for a free-standing building, the
BCC has yet to find a home of its
own.
“While it’s comfortable and at
tractive, we can’t seat any more
than 25 people,” BCC Director
Margo Crawford said. “The current
facilities are inadequate.”
Currently, many of the BCC-
sponsored programs are held else
where around campus.
“Usually when you go to a cul
tural center, you see the artifacts
and artwork of that culture,” said
Crawford, co-chair of the National
Association of Black Cultural Cen
ters.
However, with the BCC’s lim
ited space and three walls, Crawford
says it is not only difficult to have
exhibits or programming of any type
but also embarrassing.
“When people from other cen
ters come and see the facility, it’s an
embarrassment, “ she said. “We
don’t have a Black Cultural Center.
We have a Black Cultural Center
office. “
This year, as part of it’s overall
focus to devote its efforts toward
the BCC, the Black Student Move
ment has asked Crawford to con
duct all BCC programs in the “of
fice.”
‘The point needs to be made
that we are in a office.,” said Amie
Epps, BSM president. “This space
is a box. A lobby.”
A feasibility study conducted in
the summer of 1989 by architec
tural consultant Theresa Crossland
of Facilities Planning, outlined
requirements for a structure with an
area of23,000 sq. feet that will cost
about $3 million. The center would
include such things as a library,
media room, dance studio and art
gallery.
“A free standing building gives
it a sense of autonomy,” Epps said.
Last year there was even talk of
renovating the 25,000-square-foot
Howell Hall if the School of Jour
nalism moved into Carroll Hall
when the School of Business evacu
ates that facility for a new building.
But this idea has students and
the BCC’s advisory board skepti
cal.
Harold G. Wallace, vice chan
cellor of university affairs and chair
man of the advisory board, said the
board is politically cautious of the
Howell Hall idea.
, “We don’t want to be trapped in
a transition space,” Wallace said.
Although Wallace admits that
the board is still deliberating on the
question of space, he said that it
appeared the board was leaning
towards a free-standing building.
The advisory board will present its
position in a written statement to
both Crawford and the BSM in a
few weeks.
While all those involved recog
nize that the process will take time,
Crawford said one of the first things
that needs to be done is to get
Chancellor Paul Hardin to repriori
Krika R Campbcll/^/ac/c Ink
Students crowd in BCC for Angela Medlin's art exhibit last week
1
tize construction of a BCC build
ing. Currently, this consUniction is
listed in Category III of the Univer
sity’s 1991 Guide to Physical De
velopment.
Advocates of a free-standing
facility say the objective will be to
move BCC construction out of the
needed projects section and into
Category I, or the projects-in-con-
struction section.
According to vice chancellor
Donald Boulton, dean of student
affairs, the chancellor, in meetings
with representatives of the BSM
and Campus Y, “has not made a
decision on any free-standing build
ing of any kind.”
“Additional space is few and far
between,” Boulton said.
However, those involved in the
meetings said the chancellor does
seem supportive of other BCC-re
lated issues, such as the renaming
of the center to the Sonja Haynes
Stone Black Cultural Center and
creating an endowed chair on be
half of Stone, the late profes.sor of
Afro-American Studies.
The Board of Trustees will vote
on the renaming October 25. As for
the endowed chair, Epps said that
while Hardin seems to support the
idea, the chancellor has said that
donations have to come from out
side sources for the chair.
Given the chancellor’s position on
both the issues of a free-standing
building and an endowed chair, the
BSM and BCC are looking toward
students and faculty to have their
voices heard.
‘The student voice has always
been consistent and strong,”
Crawford said. “We need the voice
of the black and white faculty and
staff members on campus to go in
with the voice of the black and
white students.”
Leading the way in eliciting
student and faculty support for the
BCC are the BSM and Campus Y.
Both have dedicated this year to the
memory of Stone.
Last week was designated as
“African-American Culture Week”
by the BSM. It is just one of a
variety of programs aimed at edu
cating both students and faculty
about black culture and the need for
a BCC.
“There is something important
about the black culture experience
that we need to share with the rest of
the members of society,” Wallace
said. ‘The BCC serves black and
while students, faculty and commu
nity members.”
The need to provide this “black
culture experience,” was what
motivated BSM leaders 11 years
ago to pressure the university for a
BCC. And while administfators
did not embrace the idea right away,
students found a strong ally in their
comer.
As chair of the AFAM curricu
lum, Sonja Stone played a key role
in advising students on how to go
about educating the adminisuation
to the idea.
Slone was the BSM’s main link
age to the administration. She was
the faculty voice,” Crawford said.
Through Stone’s help, students
began to come together and organ
ize. They formed committees and
looked into other centers across the
countries. Through time and com
mitment ihe idea blossomed. Each
year, new students rose to the fore
front and made the fight a personal
one.
While Stone’s passing has
greatly saddened students, il also
has created a renewed interest and
commitment by students, both black
and white, to continue the fight.
“Student momentum has esca
lated so. that the adminisuation will
not be able to ignore them,”
Crawford said.
And while the BCC in its cur
rent facility, at best can only serve
as an office, Epps feels that with
continued support and active par
ticipation, students can make the
BCC indeed a center and not just an
office.
“(The BCC) should be an edu
cational experience every time you
open the doors,” he said.