PHOTO: (click photo to enlarge) Oregon State University President writes in the alumni magazine about raising the money to renovate or rebuild four of the main cultural centers. See article by Ed Ray, "Ed Said, Consider what it's like to be the 'other,'" Oregon Stater alumni magazine, Fall 2011, p. 8-9 (left) and an anti-gay letter in response in the next issue where the editor said Ed's article had an unprecedented response (right). Christine Armer, 0'03, "Prefers Melting Pot," Oregon Stater alumni association magazine Winter 2012, p. 5. Ed ray responds that he meant to also emphasize in the original piece that the cultural centers are important places for everyone to visit and learn.
OSU President Ed Ray was instrumental in raising money to have OSU's four main ethnic cultural centers rebuilt or renovated, a process which has begun with work on a new Native American Cultural Center. (Also Asian & Pacific Cultural Center, Black Cultural Center, Centro Cultural César Chávez, Native American Longhouse)
I am not privy to the internal OSU administration discussions, but I am sure that there has been much discussion on how do you treat cultural centers associated with a legally protected minority racial class, such as the black student center, versus the Women's Center, which represents an oppresed majority of students instead of a minority, and the OSU Pride center, for LGBT students, without offending either liberals or conservatives that sponsor OSU. I've witnessed the arguments over the years and the "politically correct" approach has been not to compare racial minorities with other groups and to acknowledge that even though women are a minority they have been historically oppressed and disadvantaged due to sex discrimination. Likewise, gay students have always had to deal with the accusation that they are not a true minority because sexual orientation is a choice unlike race according to some people and furthermore, various campus religious organizations consider gay behavior to be immoral and are resentful of gays receiving "special rights." Ironically, religion is a choice and the campus diversity goals strive to ensure the inclusiveness of all minority religious points of view, even the bigoted ones.
Other links of interest:
- Oregon Stater alumni assoication magazine Spring 2011, p. 36 -- Women's Center building, called the Station Building, was originally built for the Agricultural Experiment Station in 1892
- Oregon Stater alumni association magazine online Archive
- Oregon Stater alumni association magazine Fall 2011
- Oregon Stater alumni assoication magazine Winter 2012
- Katja Kozber, "Cultural Centers look forward to newer homes, After efforts were postponed, spring anticipates reconstruction," Barometer, Jan. 12, 2012, p. 1,3 --
- "Cultural Centers Building Project," Oregon State University Diversity Development, accessed Jul. 12, 2012 -- Asian & Pacific Cultural Center, Black Cultural Center, Centro Cultural César Chávez, Native American Longhouse
- Ed Ray's article included a link to the Web page "Equity and Inclusion," oregonstate.edu accessed Jul. 12, 2012 -- The Office of Equity and Inclusion represents efforts to integrate three previously separate areas of focus: Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity; Community and Diversity; Women's Advancement and Gender Equity
- "Cultural Centers," Submitted by simsk on Thu, 05/24/2012 - 10:23am - "OSU's seven cultural and resource centers are for students and community members who are looking for safe environments where they can learn about issues of identity, culture, heritage, history and self expression. "
- Women's Center -- often not included with the list of cultural centers at OSU
- LGBT Services -- often not included with the list of cultural centers at OSU
OSU archives library collection on gay history had added some things since I last checked. Here are some key links:
- "Collections Pertaining to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender People in Oregon," Oregon State University Archives
- "Thomas Kraemer Speech and Blog - History of OSU Gay Student Groups 1976-2006, as documented through a speech and blog by Thomas Kraemer," Oregon State University Archives Finding prepared 2007
- "Guide to Pride Center Records, 1993-2008" Oregon State University Archives (RG 236) Date received: Sep. 21 2010
- "OSU Pride Center (RG 236) 2010 Accessions, Accession 2010:048" Oregon State University Archives Date Received Jul. 22, 2010 (PDH of Other materials in this collection) -- This accession consists of a documentary film on DVD produced by alumni Philip Mason and directed by Sam Lienen about the creation of the Queer Resource Center (QRC) at OSU (now the Pride Center). Running 34 minutes, the film contains recollections from various OSU alumni and faculty involved in the founding of the QRC, including Christian Matheis, Ellen Wygant (Dishman), Robin Ryan, Linda Paschke, Melanie Spraggins, and Larry Roper. The DVD also includes footage of the 2001 ASOSU Student Fees Committee hearing on funding for the Queer Resource Center. Other materials in this collection "Records documenting the establishment of the center and its programs and activities." (PDF)
- Kelly Ward, "Library establishes Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Combination of programs, outgoing surveys improve services for researchers," Barometer, posted Nov. 8, 2011
