When some of Mia Tuan’s students shared their desire to push the University closer to diversity goals a few years ago, the sociology professor already had an idea in mind.
She pictured a center that supported “cutting edge” research on how diversity affects communities, institutions, organizations, the workplace and every person. The center would help fund individual and team research projects and also host conferences and workshops to distribute this new information and induce “tough dialogue” across the nation.
“It’s something that has been a dream I’ve wanted to be a part of since I first got into this line of work,” she said.
A couple of weeks ago, students and faculty members put forth some funding to help Tuan’s vision become a reality. The ASUO Senate allocated $200,000 of the overrealized fund, which contains extra money from the student incidental fee that comes when enrollment is higher than expected, to the Center on Diversity and Community (CODAC). The administration has also granted $100,000 to the project, Executive Assistant President Dave Hubin said.
Students and faculty members are still discussing the implementation details, but they envision the center as a place that supports original diversity research — unlike any other place in the country.
Tuan, who is now the co-chairwoman of CODAC’s implementation team, first shared her idea in 1999. That was during the sit-in at Johnson Hall, where some of her students demanded the administration meet a number of objectives, which ranged from extensive sensitivity training for faculty to giving student groups at least $1 million to help meet their diversity goals. The protest was held in response to some racially offensive comments made in University classes earlier that year.
After Tuan’s suggestion, some students were assigned to research the diversity center idea more thoroughly and write an official proposal about what the center would entail.
“I mentioned the proposal of the center, but students decided to pursue it on their own,” Tuan said.
Former ASUO President Jay Breslow said that since the sit-in, some students involved in the process lost focus of the idea, and there was never sufficient funding to get the ball rolling. But attention has shifted back to the center now that that the University has allocated money to the project, and the plan has found the funds to help begin its first steps, he said.
“It would be something that’s unique to the UO campus and nation and put the University of Oregon on the map as an institution focusing on these issues,” he said. It would “take all those issues and create a dialogue and facilitate that dialogue.”
Bola Majekobaje, the Multicultural Center’s networking advocate assistant, said the center would bring the campus together to learn about significant diversity issues that impact every person.
“It would get students and faculty to work together in order to face issues dealing with our community,” she said. “It’s a collaboration effort … and not just a place for students of color, but a place for everyone. Diversity issues affect everyone.”
Cheyney Ryan, who helps run CODAC’s implementation team with Tuan, said the center is just one part of a much larger picture of the University’s diversity initiatives — which have not made enough progress, he said.
“I think a central concern was that we simply needed to do more around diversity than we were doing,” Ryan said.
While the MCC and the Office of Multicultural Affairs were created to help work on diversity objectives, Majekobaje said the research center’s main goals are very different.
“Of course they will tie in together and work together,” she said. “But [CODAC] is the missing link.”
The implementation team has been discussing the center’s mission statement, location and funding. But its main concern is finding a director who will make all these objectives a priority and begin working on specific long-term goals for the center, Tuan said.
So far the Collier House has been the committee’s first choice for the center’s location, but the space has been allocated to other uses for at least a year, Breslow said. In contrast to the MCC, which is located in the basement of the EMU and the OMA, which is in Oregon Hall, Breslow said CODAC should be in a very visible place in the center of campus. That is why the Collier House has been a top preference.
Some ASUO student senators had previously expressed concern that the center may not generate enough funds to keep itself on its feet. But half of the money coming from the overrealized fund will go into a special account used to match private donations from community members, Breslow said. And Hubin said the administration expects to have many donors interested in the center’s goals.
Majekobaje said while the University has constantly been discussing diversity issues, the center attaches a real concrete idea to diversity. She said the center will allow people to research fresh topics they can incorporate into classrooms and share with the campus, community and nation.
“There are very few places like this in the country,” she said. ” It’s a chance to bring all people together to learn about issues that are so important … It’d be a buzzing place, where new ideas can be found everyday, and everybody belongs in this place.”