Huntington University gets multicultural house

by Anna-Kay Levy

Posted on February 16, 2017

In addition to hiring Daryl Singleton as the director of Multicultural Affairs and Minority Student Engagement, the university has approved the conversion and renovations of one of its properties into a ‘multicultural house.’

The house is located at 751 Campus Street across the road from Hardy Hall.

The purpose of the multicultural house is to provide a place where international and minority students can express their culture and bring that to the community.

“It will become a space that is identified as the cultural hub on our campus,” Singleton said.

The Multicultural Activities Committee and International Student Council are the primary student groups that have be involved in the decorating, design and transformation of the house. It is a dream that students have had for years that is now coming to life.

Singleton sought students’ opinions during the initial planning meeting.

“There were ten students from various areas of campus, and I took them in there and told them to dream a little, [asking], ‘What do you guys wanna see in here?’”

After a bit of brainstorming and conversation, the dream started to become a reality.

There are high hopes that every student at the university would consider the house a refuge from studying and a place where they can explore different cultures.

“I think often times race relations — multiculturalisms — those types of things, and those types of conversations can be rough to have,” Singleton said. “To have open dialogue about those things sometimes are hard and they are stressful, but the house will serve as a point of engagement [and] a point where students can go and meet someone they’ve never talked to that might sit next to them in class everyday.”

Singleton said the permission for the multicultural house was granted by the administration of the university during the 2016 spring semester and the location was finalized in the fall semester of the same year.

Renovations were set to begin in November, and the house is estimated to be ready by the end of the 2017 spring semester.

Though initially designed with minority students in mind, the house will be open to all students and will be a tool to bridge the gap between all cultures.

Inside the house will be a variety of hubs for students to connect. There will be a conference room for meetings, a study room and a prayer room. The kitchen is expected to be the busiest room of the house as students will be allowed to host dinners and get-togethers with a reservation.

“I am very excited to see what this brings to the HU community,” Selina Pohl, director of the Multicultural Student Council, said. “I think the house is something that can build amazing relationships through food, fun and games.”

The Multicultural Activities Council (MAC) is a student group that holds various events each year that highlight on diversity and the bridges that can be made between cultures.

The exact opening date is yet to be decided, but there is discussion that it will be sometime in March.

To find updates on the multicultural house and other MAC events, follow their Facebook page — Huntington MAC.

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