A multicultural center at Iowa State is still far from completion, despite several years of discussion and interest.

“It is now only a name; there has not been a settling of a concept,” said Leonard Perry, director of Minority Student Affairs, of the center.

However, Perry remains optimistic about the future of the center.

“I think it has the potential of creating an environment where we can enhance our learning relative to different cultures,” Perry said.

Thomas Hill, vice president for student affairs, agreed.

“I think it will be great; it will be huge,” Hill said. “It’s going to be well-received.”

The Memorial Union location vacated by the ISU Alumni Association in its move to Fisher-Nickell Hall is a possible location for such a center, Hill said. Finding a home for the Multicultural Center in the Memorial Union would be advantageous, he said.

“It makes a lot of sense to me to have something like that in the Union because the Union is the gathering place for the student body,” Hill said.

Sarah Walter, Government of the Student Body director of student diversity, said that she believes an on-campus center is a necessity.

“The biggest benefit from having the multicultural center on campus would be the accessibility to all students,” Walter said. “So it’s not just one certain group in the area who uses it.”

Walter is reviewing the progress made last spring by Perry and Sheena Green, former GSB director of student diversity.

“I probably have a 12-inch stack of files of papers from Sheena that aren’t very organized that I need to sort out,” Walter said. “I’m working on it.”

Walter said there is still a lot of work to do.

“It’s a grueling process to get feedback from groups,” Walter said. “Especially when they don’t know who you are.”

Walter said the center would be a place to have monthly diversity talks.

She said it would also be a meeting ground for the Got Ignorance? campaign, which confronts the issues of cultural ignorance and hate crimes.

“It’s still an idea. [The multicultural center] is something we’re planning on doing and we think the students want and need, but it’s still a baby idea,” Walter said. “It’s not a concrete plan yet.”

A similar idea was implemented at the University of Northern Iowa in 1971 by way of the Ethnic Minorities Cultural and Educational Center.

It was moved to the UNI student union and is now the Center for Multicultural Education.

“Over the years the center has been a place where students from underrepresented groups have felt comfortable and students from the majority population have learned about cultural awareness,” said Michael Blackwell, Northern Iowa’s multicultural center director. “I think [students] have benefited considerably from the center.”

The relocation of Northern Iowa’s multicultural center was made possible by money set aside by the university to expand the student union.

“We had a welcome back picnic gathering. Normally we have students attend, but they are primarily ones we have been in contact with before,” Blackwell said. “[This year] we had many more students and a truly diverse group of people. I think it was because of our move to the Union.”

Richard Reynolds, director of the ISU Memorial Union, said a multicultural center in the Union would be another venue for lectures and would “draw more students.”

Renovation of the Memorial Union will begin early next year. Walter said that the multicultural center will not likely be done until the renovation is completed.