A new Latino Center, sponsored by several Latino organizations on campus, will celebrate its grand opening Thursday at 7 p.m. in 1507 Helser Hall.

The grand opening will provide people with an opportunity to find out what the office is about, get information about Latino organizations and enjoy music, refreshments and fellowship, said Susana Rundquist, program assistant for the Office of Minority Student Affairs (MSA).

The Latino Center provides “a place for Latino students and faculty to get together and celebrate the Latino culture,” said Hector Avalos, Latino studies program chairman.

It is also a resource center, allowing students “to get information and get resources on our culture in English and in Spanish,” Rundquist said. The resources at the Latino Center are available to everyone.

“We hope that not just Latino students on campus will use it. We

hope that all students will use it,” said Ed Mu¤oz, professor of sociology and Latino studies.

The Latino Center evolved from what used to be known as the Hispanic American Resource Center (HARC), originally located on the third floor of Beardshear Hall.

The HARC office opened in the fall of 1992 as a peace offering between George Jackson, then director of Minority Student Affairs, and Hispanic students on campus, said Rosslyn Boyd-Scheideman, former program assistant for Hispanic students.

Hispanic students were unhappy with their lack of representation with Minority Students Affairs. Jackson offered them a room in Beardshear Hall to make a student center.

The center was used for programming, daytime club meetings and studying. It had a couch, a table, a typewriter, a small library and a bulletin board with information about jobs, scholarships, meetings, speakers and dances.

However, Boyd-Scheideman said, the center had several problems.

Students had access to the center only when Beardshear Hall was open, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., and couldn’t hold evening or weekend meetings there. “That just wasn’t convenient for students,” she said.

Also, the center was small. “It was about as big as a dorm room,” Boyd-Scheideman said. The third drawback, she said, was that the center was dependent on MSA for funding and space.

After ISU President Martin Jischke hired two new university attorneys, he asked MSA to give up some office space for them. MSA gave up the HARC office, which was closed in February of 1994.

“No one contacted the students,” Boyd-Scheideman said. “Overnight they were just told, ‘By the way the HARC office is closed.'”

The students were promised another office space, but it took several months before the center was reopened, just a few doors down from its original location, she said.

The HARC office was later moved again to an apartment in Pammel Court, but most students are unfamiliar with that area, and it was an “old, rickety place,” Boyd-Scheideman said.

The new center, remodeled this summer, is closer to campus in Helser Hall. A few walls were knocked down to provide a larger area.

The new center still is not exactly what Boyd-Scheideman said she feels the students need. Ideally, she would like to see one big multi-cultural center where each ethnic group could have its own office space and everyone could have access to a large area with a sink and stove to hold dinners and other special events.

Such a center was actually recommended by a 1992 university committee reviewing the resources and needs of minority students. That plan never materialized.