The Ball State Board of Trustees approved the proposal to begin plans for a new Multicultural Center during its meeting Friday.
The center, proposed by vice president for business affairs and treasurer Bernie Hannon and vice president for student affairs and enrollment services and dean of students Kay Bales, would cost $4 million and be open to all students, particularly minority students.
The house that the current Multicultural Center operates from was built in 1934 and was acquired by the university to be a special programs house in 1974. In that year, Bales said less than 3 percent of the student population was from a diverse background — most were African American — and now, nearly 20 percent of the freshmen class alone is from a minority background.
"As you can imagine, over that 46-year period of time, just how much our campus has changed and why this facility is now inadequate," Bales said. "So as you look at how diversity has changed on campus, and the number of student's we're serving and just how diverse our student population is, is another reason why we want to bring forward this proposal."
The current center is located on the southern edge of campus and is 4,000 square feet. The proposed building would be nearly three times the size at 10,500 square feet and located in the East Mall near Bracken Library.
Kathy Berryhill, Residence Hall Association president and Student Government Association (SGA) senator, said the center would be a good place to bring the Big 4 organizations — Latinx Student Union, Black Student Association, Asian American Student Association and Spectrum — together.
"There's often a lot of intersectionality that needs to be explored and I think that having a space that's big enough to house all of the students or students of all of those backgrounds is great," Berryhill said. "Also, it would be really nice if there could be an LGBTQ [resource] center in there because that is a prevalent population that needs to be cared for — as students, we should care about students."
This proposal coincides with SGA executive slate Amplify's platform point of bringing an LGBTQ resource center to campus, but to Berryhill, the center means so much more.
RELATED: How feasible are Amplify's platform points? The Daily News fact check
"Initially hearing this, I was over the moon," Berryhill said. "As a person who comes from a few underrepresented classes, this is huge to know that a campus where I look around and a large majority of the people don't look like me also cares about me is something that's phenomenal. It's something that will make me boast that this is my alma mater."
Hannon said a plan and blueprints for the building would be presented in the fall and if approved, construction would begin in the summer or fall of 2019.
The board also highlighted other information including:
- Centennial celebration plans, which include new signage, a Ball State road show and a hour-long documentary premier at the celebration kick-off Sept. 6, 2018.
- There were 19 new tenure track faculty members, 18 promoted to associate professor and 22 promoted to professors
- Director of athletics Mark Sandy said 16 of the 19 Ball State sports had an average Grade Point Average of 3.0
- Interim provost and interim executive vice president of academic affairs Marilyn Buck said the university dropped programming for bachelor of athletic training, major in predental hygiene, master of science in nursing due to lack of enrollment.
- Buck said the university will pick up programming for teaching major in computer science, masters in social work and BS/BA in sustainability. Additionally, a MS in athletic training is in the planning stages, but will take another year of planning before being added.
Contact Brooke Kemp with comments at bmkemp@bsu.edu or on Twitter @brookemkemp. Contact Brynn Mechem with comments at bamechem@bsu.edu or on Twitter @BrynnMechem.
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