The Intercultural Center at Marymount Manhattan College has been awfully silent during Hispanic heritage month. This has been a shock to many of marymounts continuing Hispanic students who remember the various events happening in that space during Hispanic Heritage Month last year. Many students did not realize how many Hispanic peers they had at Marymount until they had the opportunity to attend one of these cultural events. Now, these students do not have an outlet to connect with those who share the same ethnicity as them, and they are not the only ones.
Last year, the college went through a variety of leadership changes. One of the most notable changes was Intercultural Center Director, Monique Atherley’s decision to leave the college. The Intercultural Center was already short staffed being that assistant director, Kelsey Oliveira had left in December of the year before. Kella, the graduate assistant’s time working at the Intercultural Center has also come to a close leaving the Intercultural Center without any staff members managing the space.
Students say that these changes have led to many of the students of color at Marymount feeling alienated. A student worker says that while the Intercultural Center is a space where everyone should feel included, it was primarily A Safe Haven for these students to have conversations with like-minded peers about the struggles they face as ethnically diverse students at marymount. Now, it has become a glorified hangout spot that becomes less and less diverse as time goes on, says Junior Margaret, who is a frequent visitor of the intercultural center. Janae, a sophomore says that the lack of events currently happening at Marymount has directly impacted her feeling of belonging at Marymount. She was really looking forward to attending events for black students at Marymount such as herself since she did not get to attend as many as she wanted to in her first year. Other students that were asked about this issue also echoed her sentiments with one student saying that through the events at the Intercultural center, she was able to meet various people that shared. Her cultural background. She adds that she was really looking forward to bringing some of her new friends to these events so that they could find the same Community she had, and it saddens her that this isn’t something she will be able to do now. Although there has not been any confirmation from higher-ups about whether or not the Intercultural Center will be able to hold events anytime soon, students are hopeful that the Intercultural Center and its events will soon be restored being that there have been talks of replacing the intercultural centers Director in the coming weeks.
