Black Cultural Center Loses Home-base

Loyola’s Black Cultural Center, first founded in the 1970s, no longer has dedicated office space on the Lake Shore Campus. 

The student organization, dedicated to the empowerment of Black students and culture in a majority white university, now operates their community events, board meetings and member social space in conference room 126, located across from the Damen Cinema, which they have to reserve.

BCC started in Campion Hall and spent time in Centennial Forum before being relocated to room 113 in the Damen Student Center after the facility opened in 2013. 

Before being warned by faculty, the BCC student e-board was told via email to remove themselves from room 113 in Damen. Since the decision to repurpose the room was made by the administration in June 2023, BCC was without a place to convene or store their club’s necessities for events from fall 2023 through spring 2024, according to BCC President Emily Harvey. 

Harvey, a fourth-year biology major on the pre-med track, said she doesn’t have access to files once stored in Damen.

“It’s weird that I’m the president now and I don’t know where our archives are,” Harvey said.

Harvey joined BCC in her third year and said she noticed a change in community presence once the organization was removed from room 113. 

The BCC’s previous space in Damen has been repurposed for the DSD Magis Business Center, which provides business opportunities to all students. Two of the student-run businesses that operate out of the center are The FLATS and Ireland’s Pub, according to Cory Barnes, director of the Center for Black Student Excellence. 

In their new room, operated on a reservation basis, BCC has been sharing space with the CBSE, according to Barnes. 

Harvey said while sharing the room with another organization on campus which serves Black students may seem convenient for the purpose of collaborative inclusion in BCC, members no longer feel at home. 

Barnes, who sent the email alerting the BCC e-board about the move, said the reason for repurposing the room was to reimagine a better space for Black students. 

“The design of the room was to create a space for all Black students, including those who weren’t part of a student group like BCC or the African Student Alliance,” Barnes said. 

While still striving to provide a center for academic support with a social space, the idea was to make it all more inclusive for the whole of the Black student body, according to Barnes. To further demonstrate this, a staff support member was added to the new room for students to have a direct resource from the university. 

Barnes also noted space is always a practical concern at universities, and it served as another factor in the decision. However, it had been initially confusing and destabilizing for the new e-board members to figure out how to rebuild the comfortable environment that previously existed, according to Harvey. 

“We didn’t have any type of transition, so we were shocked,” Harvey said.

Third-year computer science major and Secretary of the BCC Michael Owoyemi said there was a dramatic shift in his social life after the displacement of the BCC. 

“It correlates with a point in my life where I didn’t really have that strong support system, which is crazy,” Owoyemi said. “I definitely developed some imposter syndrome during that time.”

Unsure as to how merging with CBSE benefitted members of BCC, Owoyemi said he recognizes the significance of a physical space where students can build community and offer support. 

“It made me realize you need to protect those spaces, especially when you can feel surrounded by others on campus that you’re not fully comfortable with,” Owoyemi said.

Owoyemi and Harvey both said there was an emotional weight that came with the displacement from the room, as it fostered a further sense of alienation from the rest of the student body. 

“You don’t really see as many Black people on campus,” Harvey said. “It was like a family reunion every time you went in.”

Although it’d been abrupt and BCC members had predicted they would be merged with CBSE, Harvey and Owoyemi both said they believed there could’ve been a smoother transition if the administration had communicated better. 

Harvey said she thinks they could’ve been given at least one semester to recover before having to move, since CBSE moved into room 113 less than a semester after BCC had been expected to clear out of the room. 

Board members questioned if the reasoning behind the abrupt decision was related to some personal issues between general members of the club, according to Harvey. 

“There were times when the environment felt clique-y and faculty might’ve received complaints from students, as I have,” Harvey said.

However, she said revoking their community space as a solution was trivial.

“We could’ve worked it out, but there was no chance to do anything,” Harvey said.

Looking back, Barnes said administrators could’ve approached students differently, even with timeliness serving as an issue due to the decision having to be made before the start of the fall semester. 

“We learned in terms of how to message students expeditiously and without them feeling like administration is making these changes without them,” Barnes said. “We don’t want students to think that’s how we roll.”

Students considered appealing the administrative decision shared to them through BCC’s president, but they weren’t given the chance to before the administration statement was released. No actions have been taken, according to Harvey. 

Sent to students August 2023, the memo from CBSE on behalf of the Division of Student Development said BCC would be placed with CBSE and explained their vision of diversity inclusion for the new room, according to BCC’s Instagram. 

“We are developing something new and innovative in the form of a space for diverse identities to coexist in community, as well as a more private space for each identity,” CBSE said.

Addressing student discontent with the relocation of BCC, Barnes said faculty are constantly trying to make decisions that minimize harm made to students. When it came to BCC and its legacy for Black students, Barnes said he understood what it meant for future students looking for a safe space on campus and not being able to find it where it originally was. 

“There were many students upset, but then we have new students coming in and it’s like they inherit this harm,” Barnes said. 

In order to resolve this issue, Barnes said the renewed vision for the BCC room included finding ways to integrate student recommendations and keeping ongoing conversations with what they believe belongs in the room. 

Harvey said, in the long run, BCC most likely won’t try to recover their lost space and instead plans on embracing its shared space with CBSE while continuing to embody the same encouragement to students.

“Pretty soon, it’ll probably just be seen as the CBSE room, but hopefully we’ll be able to keep the memory and the history of that first room alive,” Harvey said.