UCSD has designated the space directly above the General Store in the Old Student Center as the location for its new Black Resource Center. University officials have already refurbished the site and will open it to students once they choose a director.
The new space is meant to create a comfortable work environment for black students who as of Fall 2011 composed 1.9 percent of UCSD’s population. Additionally, the center will create a system that facilitates black students’ matriculation into higher education by providing access and retention programs for high school students and undergraduates.
The resource center will have a library, tutoring resources for high school students and workshops for law school, medical school and other graduate programs. The newly appointed Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Linda Greene, will be responsible for allocating the proper resources and overseeing these programs.
“It’s a resource center for all black students regardless of political affiliation or culturally black identity,” BSU Co-Chair Grant White said. According to White and BSU co-chair Bijon Robinson, the plan for the center began in the summer of 2009.
In 2009, the BSU board wrote a report entitled “Do U C Us?” which compiled testimonies and statistics about the state of diversity at UCSD and emphasized the lack of resources available to black students.
When racially charged events stirred the campus in the winter of 2010, the BSU included the resource center in a list of demands that it believed were necessary to address the poor climate on campus.
White and Robinson sat on the hiring committee and worked extensively with university officials to hire a director for the center. BSU’s endeavor gained momentum once former UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox approved the project.
The former chancellor brought in a team of experienced administrators like Kathleen Johnson and Gary Radcliff to form a hiring committee.
“Once we convinced administration like the chancellor that this was important, it all just fell into place,” Robinson said.
The center will likely open sometime during winter quarter, after the Vice Chair of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion assumes her role on Jan. 2.
