Celebration amid uncertainty: MSU opens multicultural center

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 12 —Michigan State University celebrated the opening of its new Multicultural Center Friday.

The $38 million building is the culmination of decades of advocacy by the Council of Racial and Ethnic Students’ push for a freestanding multicultural center since the 1990s.

At the building’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, MSU Black Alumni Inc. board President LaVerne Wilson said the Multicultural Center’s opening “signifies our commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment.”

However, the ceremony comes during a federal crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, which President Trump prohibited by a Jan. 21 executive order. The order, which calls DEI programs “illegal” and “discriminatory,” calls for civil compliance investigations of “institutes of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars,” which includes MSU.

While the American Association of University Professors has challenged the order in a lawsuit asserting it violates the Constitution, it remains in effect.

At the ceremony, there was much talk of the Multicultural Center’s storied past, a legacy of student advocacy that predates the center’s opening in 1999 in the MSU Union’s basement. Continued sit-ins and marches led the center to be moved to the Union’s second floor and renamed MOSAIC in 2013.

Uncertainty lingers over the center’s future.

Opening-ceremony speakers stressed the importance of MSU’s commitment to DEI programs. University President Kevin Gusciewicz seemed to reaffirm this, saying the building was the product of “the commitment of this university to forging a community that is welcoming, safe, and inclusive for all.” Gusciewicz also lauded MSU’s 1855 Professorships program, which MSU’s website describes as “advancing MSU’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.”

But Samuel Saldívar, director of the Office of Multicultural Enrichment and Advocacy, which will manage the multicultural center, declined in an interview to reaffirm such a commitment.

“I still believe that our mission reflects a commitment to support students,” he said when asked whether he considered DEI part of the multicultural office’s mission.

The future of DEI programs at MSU was thrown into uncertainty after a Lunar New Year celebration scheduled for Jan. 29 was abruptly canceled the day before. In an email The State News obtained, Lauren Gaines, director of diversity, equity and inclusion at MSU, attributed the decision to community concerns regarding “Executive Orders related to immigration and diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

After student backlash, the university apologized for the cancellation and rescheduled the event.

The Trump administration’s crackdown is particularly relevant to the multicultural center, for which DEI was a significant consideration during the planning process. The center’s feasibility report states it is intended “to be a tool to support MSU’s diversity and inclusion mission.”

The report also indicates that the building was intended as a hub for DEI programming, saying that students, faculty and staff expressed the necessity for a new building because “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives have outgrown” the former multicultural center.

That mission seeps into the two-story building itself. The entry corridor provides gallery space intended to “showcase the work of multicultural artists and artisans,” per design firm SmithGroup’s overview of the center. A community kitchenette serves as a meeting space, with the intention that students will share cultural foods. Reflection rooms offer spaces for meditation and prayer. An ablution station allows for ceremonial washing, and the North American Indigenous Student Organization will use a ceremonial fire pit for cultural ceremonies, as per an MSU press release.

Monteil Crawley, the multicultural center’s lead design architect, said multicultural student organizations influenced the design process: “This is a project meant for students of diverse backgrounds, and you have to understand what their needs and wants and desires are, and that it actually functions for them.”

Input for the design team was collected via a survey issued specifically to students “affiliated with the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) organizations and efforts on campus,” according to the feasibility report. Crawley said their ideas were at the core of the process, and his team’s role was merely to bring those ideas to fruition.

“It’s a perfect example that MSU is committed to diversity and inclusion,” says Crawley of the multicultural center.

Whether the multicultural center’s planned operations run afoul of the Trump administration’s guidance remains unclear. While the executive order is sweeping, it is also unspecific. The order primarily targets what it alleges are “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences,” which supposedly violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The civil compliance investigations that will target universities, including MSU, are meant to “deter DEI programs or principles (whether specifically denominated “DEI” or otherwise) that constitute illegal discrimination or preferences.”

It is also unclear what the consequences of an infraction might be. However, federal support is integral to research at MSU. According to MSU’s website, $474 million came from federal sources — over half of total research expenditures.

Facing this uncertainty, Saldívar said that the Office of Multicultural Enrichment and Advocacy “is going to continue to support students.” Though he did not reaffirm a commitment to DEI programs, he asserted that the office will continue to “strive” to create “a space where students feel included and feel supported.”

Some speakers at the ribbon-cutting ceremony looked to the multicultural center as a beacon of hope for DEI programs.

Brady Velazquez, founder and chair of APIDA — Asian Pacific Islander Desi American/Asian — Spartans, said the ceremony proved “the power of community, resilience, and advocacy.”

“This moment was not given to us — it was fought for,” Velazquez said, referring to the protests that have accompanied each stage of the multicultural center’s history.

“This center represents more than just brick and mortar,” she continued. “It is a testament to those who came before us and a promise to those who will follow.”

Maria Serrato, president of the Latino Spartans alumni club, spun this legacy of activism into a call to action.

“The question is, now that the multicultural center is built, what is MSU’s commitment to preserving ethnic studies programs and diversity initiatives?” she asked, to applause.

“With everything that is happening today,” she continued, “we have to keep fighting for a more inclusive campus, more representation, and retention. Will you help us?”