Creating a New Dialogue

The student bodies of American colleges and universities are becoming more diverse by measure of race, gender identity, wealth and sexual orientation, among other factors. In addition, the American socio-political discourse is becoming more complicated and tumultuous with each passing year, as social dialogue has become a larger part of the American college experience. How a higher education institution facilitates this dialogue is instrumental to the well-being of its students, and Boston University has attempted to do so through the Howard Thurman Center.

Founded in 1986 to serve as a “welcoming place for students to discuss racial and cultural divides on campus and explore their shared humanity” according to BU Today, the HTC has worked for decades to break down divides on campus, but has long done so with little staff and space.

Now, the HTC is the subject of a new expansion project which will, among other things, include the addition of new staff and the creation of a new building for the center on campus.

When asked how and why this expansion came to be now after over three decades in the original location, Associate Director Pedro Falci said, “Talks started in fall of 2015, and at that time a lot of US campuses were seeing protests around issues of race and around issues of the general campus climate.”

Falci cited the Univeristy of Missouri’s mishandling of frequent protests on campus as an influence in the decision to expand the HTC.

“There was a feeling that universities had done a poor job improving the quality of discourse, and we were seeing that on BU campus as well, there was a lot of demonstration and not a lot dialogue,” said Falci.

In order to remedy this, HTC staff met with President Brown to discuss an expansion, and they eventually settled upon the plan currently in place. Falci noted that new staff hiring had already begun, citing a new marketing and communications position as a boon for the overall productivity and reach of the center. Other aspects of the expansion focus similarly on visibility, both metaphorical and literal.

In the past, the HTC has been located on the basement floor beneath the George Sherman Union on central campus, making it hard to find and almost impossible to merely stumble upon accidentally. As a result of this, the top priority when considering a new physical location was relocating somewhere that students wouldn’t have to search for.

“We want students to trip over the Thurman Center,” said Falci. He is hopeful that a new location could help the center realize its goal of being a campus hub.

This isn’t to say that for some students the center isn’t already an integral part of the BU experience. Those that have made it a part of their lives find it to be one of the most welcoming, inspiring and friendly places on campus.

When asked about the impact on students’ lives that he had seen Falci said that many students had told him “they would’ve transferred if not for the Thurman Center,” and that instead, “they found a home, they were able to make friends and have a sounding board for their life events.”

One such student was Victoria Catipon (CGS ’20), who sat in the HTC lounge on a rainy Wednesday afternoon studying with one of her friends. Catipon said that she first encountered the center when a friend of hers brought her there to study.

“I think the people here are really interesting, and I hope for the center to become a bigger and bigger part of my life as I go through school,” said Catipon of the impact of the center on her own experience as a student.

Ultimately, the expansion could mean great things for the Howard Thurman Center and the student body as a whole. With an end goal of expanding existing programming, which already includes campus events, roundtable discussions, online blogs and much more, making further in-roads into the local Boston community and connecting to the non-profit sector, there’s no lack of ambition when it comes to Thurman Center leadership.

Falci added that he saw the center “achieving its potential and become a commons or town square” for BU’s campus.

With the expansion only just beginning, it may be a while before this potential is fully achieved. However, with political discourse becoming more heated every day and divides on the grounds of race, gender, sexual orientation and other foundations of our identities as individuals, it is more valuable than ever to share in our humanity, and it is heartening to see a campus organization so devoted to fulfilling this ideal.

By Paul Stokes and Ashley Griffin | Photography by Amanda Willis | Design by Harshetha Girish