The MultiCultural Center introduced new community guidelines and safety plans this year, following an incident last February involving students posting pro-Palestine, anti-Zionist signage at the lounge which led to a cancellation of its programming for the year. The new plans also include the appointment of a new executive director and programs director. 

The community guidelines include a love for liberation for all, freedom of cultural expression and no place for hate. Nina Timofeyeva / Daily Nexus

The MultiCultural Center (MCC) is an on-campus center that was created in 1988 as a response to student and faculty activism to be a community space for students of color at UCSB. 

The incident involving pro-Palestine, anti-Zionist signage led to MCC staff and student staff being doxxed on social media, causing the MCC to take down its website and staff contact sources. After the shutdown, all MCC operations halted until spring quarter, when the lounge was reopened, however no programming was held for the rest of the academic year.

After the shutdown, several departments on campus issued statements opposing the shutdown of the MCC. The Black studies department released a statement on March 2 raising concern over the removal of a space for students to express themselves and organized a “day of interruption” on March 7 including class cancellations and teach-ins. 

This academic year, the MCC has designed a new “holistic approach and safety plan” and appointed a new interim director and a new programs director. At an Oct. 3 MCC open house, the MCC Interim Director and UCSB alum Afiya Browne introduced the center’s approach this year, specifically detailing three new community guidelines. 

The community guidelines include “a love for liberation above all,” “freedom of cultural expression,” “no space for hate” and “energy is love.” There are over 15 community guidelines.

“[They are] guidelines that have definitely governed the space informallymbut now have a more formal presence in our center,” Browne said.

The mission of the MCC this year centers around these guidelines as well as a safety plan. The safety plan is broken down into three separate frameworks in their operations and programming, including trauma-informed care practices and principles, disability justice and restorative justice and principles. 

“The holistic safety plan is centered around making sure that the MCC provides a safe and inclusive space for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities at UCSB. We do this by fostering community care and resisting that intersecting system of oppression,” UCSB alum and MCC Program Coordinator Marina Habib said.

Habib was appointed to be the new program coordinator this year after previous Program Coordinator Micky Brown left the position after being appointed in 2023. The Nexus was unable to confirm the reasoning behind or exact timing of Brown’s departure.

New Interim Director Browne said this holistic safety plan is the MCC’s “collaborative strategic plan” for how they plan to manifest “student-driven values that are the community guidelines” as well as the MCC’s student-driven mission statement from 2021. 

Browne said that the MCC will be in conversation with the campus community throughout the year regarding their safety plan, with a focus on engaging in community care collectively. She added that the MCC will engage with different student organizations and campus departments aiming at uplifting BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities.

The MCC will also facilitate community circles grounded in restorative justice practices regarding international conflicts that spur on-campus actions, such as the signage incident. 

“The restorative justice framework has provided MCC [the] opportunity to engage in challenging conversations about grief about the war in ways we did not have the tools to do last year and now we’re actually able to,” Browne said. 

Students who utilize the MCC spoke about their experience without its space and programming last year.

“[The MCC] is one of the safe havens for students of color here at a PWI [predominantly white institution], and so closing our space temporarily I had to look for other safe spaces or counter spaces on campus which is really hard to find,” fourth-year English major, Asian American studies minor and MCC Program Assistant Den Earl Dulos said.

A version of this article appeared on p. 6 of the Oct. 17, 2024 edition of the Daily Nexus.