UC Berkeley Web Feature
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Chancellor Birgeneau and ASUC President Van Nguyen, flanked by staff and student members of the negotiating team, sign the multicultural center agreement. (Steve McConnell/UC Berkeley photo) |
Chancellor, student leaders sign new plan for multicultural center
BERKELEY – UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau and student leaders today (Wednesday, April 16) signed an agreement that is expected to improve the look and operation of the campus's multicultural center.
The memorandum replaces and improves upon a previously signed agreement that was set to expire in June of this year. The new agreement, which will last through June 30, 2011, will include university funding of more than $100,000 for staffing for the center and for multicultural programming and activities.
It also establishes that UC Berkeley will seek to raise at least $200,000 for renovation of the center's current facility. In addition, the memorandum sets up a student-led advisory board and a student-run operations committee that will manage the center and oversee programs. The campus's vice chancellor for equity and inclusion, Gibor Basri, will appoint a staff representative to the advisory board.
The multicultural center is located on the ground floor of Heller Lounge in the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union building. Ultimately, students and campus leaders expect the center to be moved to a facility in lower Sproul Plaza when that area undergoes major renovation.
The multicultural center was created in 1999 following a series of protests, hunger strikes and demonstrations by a student group that, among other things, sought to increase funding for the campus's Department of Ethnic Studies.
For more information on the agreement, check out the Memorandum of Understanding for the UC Berkeley Multicultural Center.