MCC Mission Statement 2021
In 1987, the MultiCultural Center was created out of student demands, along with the support of the larger campus community, for a safer and inclusive community space for students of color at UCSB. With the original intent to facilitate the recruitment and retention of students of color and to combat intersecting systems of institutional oppression and racism, the center has grown, both in its mission and physical footprint, to address myriad social justice issues and take action in pursuit of a more just society.
Through its pillars of educational programming, student engagement, and community outreach, the MultiCultural Center models a mutually supportive relationship with its students, the campus at large, and serves as a bridge to the larger surrounding community. These pillars, along with the day-to-day interactions and opportunities for students and community members to foster and maintain connections, continue to ground the center as a shared community space that provides platforms for critical dialogue and serves to uphold a safer, welcoming space that validates marginalized identities.
Students have been, and remain, central to the MultiCultural Center. As a home for students who may not otherwise find such spaces on- or off-campus, the center cultivates a culture of care-work and belonging for students and student coalitions through opportunities for development and empowerment in their academic, professional, and personal pursuits. By centering the people that find a home at the MultiCultural Center, we seek to foster meaningful relationships that uplift students, staff, faculty, and the off-campus community through shared values and experiences that will empower the individual and the collective to serve as advocates for positive change in our communities.
As cultural centers often occupy a precarious position and face challenges, the MultiCultural Center’s commitment to collective social justice work cannot and will not stop. Through the unwavering support of student lock-in fees, the center is steadfast in its commitment to materialize its mission. It is vital that the MultiCultural Center remain an autonomous site through the direct guidance of student leadership, staff, and faculty. We will continue to uplift marginalized identities and communities because these values remain at the heart of the center. Despite existing in the margins while working within an institution, we will preserve and continually improve the MultiCultural Center as a place of knowledge, resistance, empathy, advocacy, and community for future generations of students, activists, and the larger community.
