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from the issue of March 9, 2006
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Students OK union project
BY KELLY BARTLING, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Students put their votes behind a new union expansion and multicultural center at a student election last week, paving the way for a project that will end years of discussion about the UNL Culture Center.
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| | | PROJECT APPROVED - Following a successful student-fees vote March 1, plans are finalizing for a new unions expansion project that will house a new multicultural center. The identified site for the project is east of the Nebraska Union. If funding sources are identified to support the remaining half of the project cost, construction could start as soon as fall 2007.
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The March 1 ASUN election included a ballot measure to put an additional $12 per semester in student fees toward a unions expansion/multicultural center. That measure passed 1,839 for to 644 against.
Construction on the planned 30,000-square-foot expansion, to be built east of the Nebraska Union, could begin as early as fall 2007 and the new building could open as early as fall 2009, said Jim Griesen, vice chancellor for student affairs.
Griesen and Jamar Banks, director of OASIS and the manager of the current Culture Center, located at 333 N. 14th St., said the successful vote is a step forward for diversity enhancement at UNL and a tribute to the work by student groups and student leaders like ASUN President Omaid Zabih.
"The students made it happen," Banks said following the election last week. "We had a great planning group of students that we worked with, and this was student-driven from the start.
"The outcome really showed the campus that folks are serious about diversity, and serious about a new beginning so-to-speak in expanding the union for this use. This speaks volumes about the students here at UNL and the value they place on making our campus a strong campus, welcoming and diversified."
The student-fees increase, beginning in 2009, will generate $4.35 million toward the estimated $8.7 million project. Meantime, the University of Nebraska Foundation is seeking donors to fund the remainder of the project cost. Once funding sources are identified, Griesen said, the project can be presented to the NU Board of Regents for approval, and the project can begin.
The union expansion would include a long-awaited multicultural center, student lounges, computer lab, meeting rooms and a large multi-use area, in addition to student offices, tutoring rooms, and space for faculty, staff and students dedicated to diversity and multicultural programming, such as the staff of the Office of Academic Support and Intercultural Services.
The project was approached as a union expansion because of the inability to meet demand for space in the city union, primarily meeting rooms, student offices, lounges and computer labs; in addition, the Culture Center, located since 1985 at what was formerly a church on 14th Street, is sorely needing remodeling and expansion for multicultural groups, students and faculty.
"The old Culture Center has a nice quaint look to it, but it just isn't a good facility for meeting our needs. It was never designed for what we're using it for," Griesen said.
Discussion about the need for a new Culture Center began around 1999, and a survey of support for a new center was placed before student voters in 2002, and failed. Griesen said that 2002 proposal did not have a site identified, a program statement or a price tag. The successful vote last week was due mostly to the advance work done by student groups to communicate with each other about their needs and the building proposal, the appeal to multiple uses of the proposed expansion, and because students are increasingly seeing the value in an enhanced multicultural center.
"This will be a huge boost to our efforts to enhance enrollment and diversity," Griesen said. "This will put us on the map nationally as an institution that values diversity, and it will be evident to students who are interested in coming to Nebraska."
History of UNL's Culture Center
1969 - Culture Center is moved from 16th and Y Street to 1012 N. 16th St. University officials over the next 16 years eyed various locations for a permanent culture center, including Terrace Hall (formerly the Tau Kappa Epsilon annex), and a building at 16th and Q streets.
October 1984 - University purchases United Ministries in Higher Education property (known as the Commonplace Building) at 333 N. 14th St. for Culture Center. The building also housed University Child Care Project there until 1986.
1999 - Issues begin to be raised about deteriorating conditions and lack of space in the Culture Center.
2002 - A survey question on the student elections ballot asks if students support a fee increase to fund a new culture center, and fails by a 2-to-1 margin.
2006 - A referendum on increasing fees for new union expansion/multicultural center passes 1,839 to 644; student fees will generate half of the $8.7 million proposed cost
GO TO: ISSUE OF MARCH 9
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