Keep cultural centers in mind

The function of some campus spaces underscores their symbolic importance. Two of Duke’s cultural mainstays—the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture and the Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Life­—have just this symbolic resonance. Both the Mary Lou Williams Center and the LGBT Center, which moved from cramped, subaltern spaces to their current locations in the West Union building in 2004, rose to prominence in tandem with increased diversity and awareness on Duke’s campus, and stand for more than weekly jazz and “Fabulous Fridays.”

This history justifies spectators’ concerns about the fates of the Mary Lou Williams and LGBT centers after they are permanently jettisoned from the West Union building when renovations begin in 2013. The justification for this move—that the renovated “public space” of the West Union building cannot sustain the “private” functions of the Mary Lou Williams and LGBT centers­—only nourishes fears that these spaces will have low priority in the West Union reshuffle. This marginalizing rhetoric is objectionable, even if the actual reshuffle does not defy reason.

To characterize these centers as private is both inaccurate and misleading. The Mary Lou Williams Center’s weekly jazz performances, for instance, have become a cultural anchor at Duke. If these are private spaces, then the sphere of public spaces­—eateries and reservable rooms—is misleadingly small. In any case, this rhetoric only reinforces the idea that these centers are something other than what they are­—public spaces for all Duke students to enrich their undergraduate lives.

But bad rhetoric does not preclude a real justification for moving these centers. The West Union renovation promises transformation in Duke’s future, and students have a duty to take our licks in the meantime. Students will suffer across the board as essential services are relocated to a mysterious and inchoate event pavilion in 2013, and fairness demands that these centers bear these costs along with the rest of us.

This doesn’t mean that the Mary Lou Williams and LGBT centers should get short shrift in the transition, however. Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta has committed to finding both centers equivalent spaces in the future. But where is this space to be found, especially while the West Union building is under construction? The stop-gap pavilion promises to accommodate eateries displaced by the West Union renovations, but no similar makeshift spaces have been planned for refugee student groups. The administration has taken the edge off of our fears by consulting a limited selection of students before announcing these plans. But we are still scared.

The symbolic potency of these spaces demands that they receive high priority in the transition. Every effort should be made to relocate them to visible spaces on West Campus. After all, what are prospective and current students, not to mention alumni, to think about a campus­—one south of the Mason-Dixon line­—that relegates cultural groups to the cavernous isolation of Smith Warehouse or the Bryan Center?

We trust the Mary Lou Williams and LGBT centers will get the spaces they deserve in the long run. But, in the meantime, they cannot be lost in the shuffle.