Contact Romy Ellenbogen at rellenbogen@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @romyellenbogen
Yareliz Mendez-Zamora found her home on the steps of La Casita, a building filled with Latin music and family.
When Kalimah Ujaama stepped into the Institute of Black Culture, it felt like a homecoming.
For Mendez-Zamora and Ujaama, along with other alumni and current students, having spaces dedicated to their identity was vital in a predominantly white school such as UF.
Despite the buildings’ age, lack of accessibility and mold, the old wooden houses on West University Avenue were places where they could feel safe. They mourned when the buildings closed in January to be demolished and rebuilt, and they looked forward to the possibilities of bigger spaces and more opportunity.
But now, after seeing blueprints and meeting with architects, several students, including Ujaama and UF alumna Mendez-Zamora, are concerned with the possibility that the two institutes will be merged into one building.
A petition, titled “Save the Institute of Black Culture,” was created in April and has since been signed by more than 900 people. William Atkins, the executive director of Multicultural and Diversity Affairs, announced two days later that the project for both houses would be paused.
“I think it’s de nitely one of the top strategies that helped to bring the project to a halt,” Ujaama, a black affairs ambassador, said of the petition. “I think it was definitely the petition, but it also probably has to do with behind- closed-doors politics.”
Ujaama was pleased to hear the project would be paused and thinks it’s because it would be a “bad look” for the university to continue as current students and alumni protested.
Atkins said officials have looked into expanding funding for the project, which is already budgeted for $5.3 million, and student advisory committees and alumni advisory committees will be put together to take a look at the project. He said there has already been a large interest in joining the committees, which will be formed by the MCDA staff.
“I just think it’s important for us to make sure that we are gathering more voices, hearing from more voices and gathering more information from alumni, from the students, as we move forward with the project,” Atkins said.
Atkins said while he was a student at UF in 2009 he used resources at the IBC and La Casita.
“It was definitely a great place for me to find community here at UF,” he said.
Christopher Wilde, a former ambassador with La Casita, said he left the ambassador program when he saw the focus shift from La Casita to the Reitz Union spaces. He felt the direction of the department was shifting away from advocacy.
“The main reason I was part of the department was because of the house and the space it provided me, of comfort and empowerment,” he said, “and when I realized the house would be closed, I didn’t really want to work in the Reitz Union, because it’s not the same there.”
Wilde said part of the reason he left was because of the lack of transparency when it comes to the construction of the building, and he said the meetings with the architects were not publicized.
Wilde also felt information about the project was handed to them last minute. He said he would find things out through a friend.
“It wasn’t like we were being involved in the decisions, they were kind of telling us what was going to happen,” he said, “and as a student ambassador, you think that you’d have a voice in what was happening or at least be informed.”
Though he’s happy the project has been paused, Wilde isn’t sure if there will be any difference. He thinks with the same administration in charge, the lack of transparency will continue.
“It comes down to an underlying desire that administration has for the department to serve as mainly as a photo-op of diversity, instead of actual advocacy,” he said. “They don’t want students to have agency, because students with agency will do things that make the institution uncomfortable.”
Mendez-Zamora said she hopes current students will ensure both spaces get to keep their history and heritage. She doesn’t want to see the two spaces merged into one because of the distinct history of La Casita and the IBC. When she first found out the buildings would go down, she was angry. She said the issues with the buildings, like mold, should have been taken care of before it got to the point of needing to demolish the buildings.
“The houses have a lot of historical significance,” Mendez-Zamora said.
Ujaama said that while the university’s focus on multiculturalism is good, merging the IBC with another space would decrease black identity at UF.
“Having individual spaces for cultural groups on campus ensures that people from those cultural groups have a voice at the table,” she said.
The former La Casita building
