Current members of Students of Color: Claim Our Seats are working to create a multicultural center. The creation of the center is the activist group’s goal for the year.

SOCCOS has been looking for schools that St. Thomas compares itself to and using them to create a foundation for what its multicultural center will be. The schools it researched have multicultural centers somewhere on campus. SOCCOS member junior Sunita Dharod said these schools have the right idea.

“Everybody has a culture to offer. Whether you’re from Minnesota (or) out of the country, everybody has their own story and background,” Dharod said . “The multicultural center would be open to everybody.”

The idea was first introduced by two students in a SOCCOS meeting last year. By the spring, blueprints were created and the center was pitched to the administration. However, the idea was not approved.

Dharod said the administration claimed cost issues were a key problem.

Patricia Conde-Brooks, the executive director for campus inclusion and community, worked with the students of SOCCOS last year to get the center approved. She said the center couldn’t be approved because the design ideas weren’t possible within the space provided.

Despite the reasons for being unapproved last year, Dharod said it allowed SOCCOS “to get started in the process. It was ultimately a good thing to go off of and learn from.”

According to Conde-Brooks, students of SOCCOS met with her and Karen Lange earlier this summer. They talked about certain aspects of the center that would need to be addressed. Conde-Brooks said that being widely and fully representative is one of the most important things for the center to focus on.

“A lot of students would need to come together to create a good representation of all of the different cultures,” Conde-Brooks said.

According to Dharod, the center would focus on bringing unity, inclusion and community to St. Thomas. She said that being a person of color can feel isolating at times, and that creating a multicultural center would be able to bring people together.

“It would give students of color at St. Thomas a place to celebrate their identity,” Dharod said. “It would give all students a place to learn about other people’s identities and where we come from.”

SOCCOS plans to revisit administration around the end of January with its information collected from the other schools.

“We’re making small steps,” Conde-Brooks said. “I want students to see their culture on campus. Not just in one place either, but all over campus.”

Kailyn Johnson can be reached at john4298@stthomas.edu.