After some discussion, the Minnesota State Student Association decided to table a motion regarding their recomendation on the controversial Latino Center.
The Centennial Student Union Board and its chair Alexi Roskom drafted a letter to Walt Wolf, dean of students, recommending a larger, joint multicultural center composing of the four major ethnic groups at Minnesota State (Asian, Latino, African-American and Native American) with lounge space for students.
The recommendation proposes moving the multicultural affairs office to CSU 264, where the International Student Association currently resides. It would fuse together with the new Intercultural Student Center to create one giant office. The International Student Association office would move to Multicultural Affairs' old office.
Roskom said the board felt this was an appropriate middle ground, since there is already a lack of meeting space in the CSU.
"We feel like having an entire meeting space for one population of students doesn't make sense for the student body," Roskom said.
There are 38 different ethnicities represented at MSU, and Roskom said there would be no way to build separate centers and offices to acommadate all of them.
"I feel like this very fair, from the perspective of the students," said MSSA President Murtaza Rajabali. "I think the CSU board did a good job of balancing out everyone's needs."
Rajabali added that it would be easier for students if all the multicultural offices were located in one spot, rather than broken up and scattered throughout the CSU.
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Senator Micheal Do also agreed with the reccomendation.
"I think it meets in the middle," he said. "It's hard to satisfy both parties. It's not like what they're asking for is absurd, it's just that everyone wants the best deal [they can get]."
During the meeting, one senator pointed out that it may seem hypocritical to have Women's and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) centers, which cater to a specific population, and give that as a reason for not building a Latino center.
"The Women's Center targets a different demographic and fights for the equality of women," Rajabali said. "It has a different purpose. Same with the LGBT center. The multicultural centers have a similar goal: to make the population less ignorant of their cultures. They go together."
Dalton Crayton, recruitment and retention specialist for the Intercultural Student Center at MSU, didn't seem to agree with the senate's recommendation. According to Rajabali, he said the multicultural center would be like "opening a can of sardines and mixing them together" and said the senate "shouldn't be listening to what administration says."
"This isn't what administration says," Rajabali said. "This is what students want."
Although the board has recommended that certain offices and centers move, they stress that this is only a recommendation and that they have yet to talk to the centers. The board also isn't sure about costs and still needs to speak with architects.
"No one knows where the money is coming from," Rajabalai said.
MSSA also elected three new senators. Dan Hallgren became the new senator for the College of Business, Nikki Sabby for off-campus and Braeden Hogie for the Crawford residence hall.
Dannie Higginbotham is the Reporter news editor
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