With all the new spaces opening in the Reitz Union this past week, UF has shown, as it strives for preeminence, it doesn’t just look at what salaries its graduates get, but also how its students — particularly minorities — feel on campus.
While UF doesn’t necessarily have an ideally inclusive climate, it has these spaces, which represent a step in the right direction that many universities have yet to take. Part of the Reitz expansion was the new Multicultural and Diversity Affairs offices. Now UF has two spaces for Hispanic Latinx and black students respectively, which is a first. These spaces serve as a celebration for all that those communities accomplished — with the Hispanic Enrichment Center, affectionately called La Salita, showing off a timeline of influential members of their community (including our current Student Body President, Joselin Padron-Rasines).
Student organizations can showcase their accomplishments on the Asian Pacific Islander American Affairs’ shelves. More commonly, it’s a place where students can just come and study while listening to the Disney instrumentals that play softly in the background.
Even though minority enrollment is probably a lot better at UF than when the university was founded in 1853, it still has a long way to go. UF is still very white. These spaces could show prospective minority students that they have a place on campus in the form of a university office.
Preeminence is not just about having the latest scientific research or having the highest-paid graduates — it’s also about remembering the students you have and that minority communities need their own spaces. Being a top-10 institution needs to mean being inclusive of marginalized identities and promoting advocacy and education about minority issues on campus.
The $70.7 million renovation wasn’t just about creating the social stairs or a new orange and blue, but it was also about centrally locating MCDA’s space so many of the things that draw more LGBTQ+ students and students of color could be found in a more convenient location. By locating so many different offices in the same building, they have made the Reitz a culturally essential part of campus.
As a student who came to UF while construction was still going on, I always saw the student union as an out-of-the-way place with a food court and an overpriced bookstore. I never thought the construction was going to end, nor would the Reitz ever be fully open.
Now the Reitz has so much more to offer: MCDA, instead of being located in Peabody Hall, where the offices were quite difficult to visit if you were looking at the campus as a prospective student, is now located in the busiest part of campus with thousands of students and prospective students walking past each day. Its inclusion in the Reitz serves as a reminder of its importance.
As an MCDA Ambassador myself, I’m optimistic for how this can bring the issues of minority students to the forefront of our discussions.
Yes, APIA and LGBTQ+ students had spaces in the past, but they were hard to find and many people did not know about them. Even if they did, there was limited space in them. Now the MCDA can serve as a place where communities can thrive within the heart of campus itself.
Nicole Dan is a UF political science sophomore. Her column appears on Mondays.
