Events

ABOUT:
The MultiCultural Center was born after severely underrepresented students of color at UCSB demanded the creation of a hospitable and safe space for their use. Through educational programming, such a space was intended to promote changes in attitudes and behaviors throughout the campus community. The MCC strives to support student activism and maintain a mutually supportive relationship within the UCSB community in the pursuit of a more just society.

MISSION:
In 1987, UCSB students of color, who were then severely underrepresented at the University demanded the creation of a hospitable and safe space for their use. Such a space was intended to facilitate the retention and recruitment of students of color and to combat institutional racism and ethnocentrism. These aims were to be realized in part through educational programming, which would promote changes in attitudes and behaviors throughout the campus community.

Out of this initial impulse and the ensuing dialogues among students and allied faculty and staff, the MultiCultural Center was born. Students of color joined with international students to share a space, which, it was hoped, would realize these initial demands, and increase communication among people of different cultures. In time, recognizing the need to be inclusive of diverse value orientations, the MCC mission was broadened to include combating racism, sexism, and heterosexism.

UCSB struggles today with the same problems which necessitated the formation of the MCC. The MCC and concerned students, faculty, and staff continue to resist and confront these persistent forms of group oppression. In addition to continuing to provide a safe space for students of color, international students, and gay, lesbian, and bisexual students, the MCC serves as a bridge to the entire campus community. To that end, the MCC offers a broad spectrum of events including lectures, panel discussions, films and videos, musical, dance, and dramatic performances, and poetry readings, which are all open to the general public.

It is vital that the MCC always remain an autonomous site under the direct control of the MCC Board, composed of students, staff, and faculty. The MCC strives to support student activism and maintain a mutually supportive relationship with its student users, as they work together in pursuit of a more just society.

—The MultiCultural Center Board
April 20, 1995

SUPPORT US:
If you’re interested in helping to support please contact Laurie Hoyle or Download the Gift Form PDF file.

The MCC fills a number of special niches on the UC Santa Barbara campus and within the greater Santa Barbara community. The MCC:

◦Provides UC Santa Barbara students from underrepresented communities with a safe space in which they feel supported, acknowledged, heard, and seen
◦Hosts special series, such as the Race Matters Series, that intensely focus the MCC’s ongoing efforts to address racism—including institutional racism—and to achieve racial equality

◦Presents the Santa Barbara community with cutting-edge performers whose art provokes conversation, debate, and action related to pressing social issue

◦Educates the public and raises their awareness of constituencies—such as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities—that are marginalized and discriminated against by society

◦Creates forums for the inclusive, respectful exchange of ideas that characterizes discourse in a civil society such as ours

◦Supports visual artists through presentation of their socially informed work in the MCC’s gallery

◦Offers premium facilities, such as the MCC theatre, lounge, and fully equipped kitchen, for use by student groups in their outreach and advocacy efforts

Your support is critically important in sustaining and enhancing the MCC’s work. To make a gift to the MCC, simply:

1.Print out, complete, and mail in the gift form provided here or

2.Contact the Student Affairs Grants and Development office at (805) 893-7713 and say that you’d like to make a donation. We accept gifts by check or credit card. We also accept one-time gifts, multi-year pledges, and gifts to establish endowments. We are happy to work with you to find the giving option that matches your interests, meets high-priority needs, and results in appropriate donor recognition. Thank you for considering a gift to the MCC, and thank you for all of the work you do on a daily basis to ensure social justice and achieve racial equality.