The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3 - 84

Kimberly Otchere * Tekita Bankhead * Ayanna Williams

have been strengthened by their external partnerships and shared programmatic mission
with the UIUC cultural centers. The cultural
centers have a similar history to the formation of student organizations within University
Housing because of expanded efforts to offer
more support methods for students of color.
The Civil Rights movement forced higher education to rethink its student body landscape.
Social movements also served as the catalyst
for curricular change and institutional reform
(Williamson, 2003). By the late 1960s, UIUC
was modeling this same work and would foreshadow many years later how students would
achieve the change they sought.
Project 500 was the first university race
related enrollment initiative, which welcomed
more than 500 Black and Latino students to
the Champaign-Urbana campus (University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016). Although residence halls were desegregated in
1945, African American students had many
concerns about their living experience in
university housing as well as the collective
education environment. Thus, through demonstrations students were able to advocate for
the creation of the African American Cultural
Program, now known as the Bruce D. Nesbitt
African American Cultural Center, and the
formation of the first Black Student Union
(BSU), established in University Housing.
These outlets served as hubs for cultural exploration and expression. Unlike other BSUs
at other universities, this BSU was not birthed
in the African American Cultural Center, but
rather in University Housing where there was
an abundance of human and financial resources. After the opening of the African American
Cultural Program, similar student demonstra-

tions erupted in various communities and
resulted in the subsequent openings of additional cultural centers, including the Women's
Resources and Services Office (currently the
Women's Resource Center) in 1970, the Gay
Illini Resource Center (currently the LGBT
Resource Center) in 1976, La Casa Cultural
Latina in 1974, the Native American House
in 2002, and the Asian American Cultural
Center in 2005. Each center has been born out
of struggle, protest, and resilience. Each cultural- and identity-based resource center works
closely with University Housing. Social Justice
and Leadership Education is situated in Residential Life, where there are three full-time
mid-level staff responsible for the advising,
programming, and training and development
of residents and staff. Over time, this structure
supports the work that has been produced by
the BSUs. In addition to the aforementioned
identity-centered student organizations, there
are groups such as Men of Impact and the
Queer Housing Coalition, which are supported
by full-time staff. Each student organization is
allotted a multi-thousand dollar programming
budget to support the residents of their constituency. The mission, vision, and purpose
of inclusivity in University Housing is carried
out daily through the work of professional and
paraprofessional staff, as well as residents,
through this identity-centered work.
Another critical contextual component is
the history of race at UIUC, which has been
intricately connected to and influences the
ways students engage the campus today. This
history includes Project 500, which resulted in
the largest arrest of Black students, the removal
of the Native American mascot, and the faliure
to select a new mascot. All of these actions

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3