Multi-Cultural Center celebrates ninth year

For its ninth-annual celebration, the Multi-Cultural Center is hoping to expand its audience and increase student awareness and sensitivity toward groups ranging from gays and lesbians to the Scandinavian community, according to Leonard Valdez, director of the Multi-Cultural Center.

Between Sept. 14 and Sept. 19 the Center is having an open house, the theme of which will be "A Week of Unity and Welcome."

Through speakers like Victor Lewis and Hugh Vasquez, who will lecture on an educational film called "The Color of Fear," the Center hopes to dispel any beliefs that it only caters to the four principle minority groups: African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Chicano/Latino Americans.

"I don't know of any other place where I can run into so many different people from so many different cultures," said Abdurrahim Wasi, president of the Muslim Student Association. "They practice cultural diversity and they're tolerant of other views at the Multi-Cultural Center."

The Multi-Cultural Center was established in 1990 to help expand CSUS' commitment to a campus environment that celebrates and supports the racial and ethnic population of the university. It receives approximately $40,000 per year from both ASI and lottery funds, with additional financial support provided by private contributions.

The cultural aspects of technology and its related careers will also be an area of focus at the Center. On Feb. 22, it will hold a technology fair designed to improve self-awareness through interactive activities.

"Our overall goal is to assist the university in the realization of their mission to make the campus an institution which celebrates diversity and educates students to function in a pluralistic world," said Valdez. "There is a greater purpose that goes beyond our own organization."

Students interested in more information about the Multi-Cultural Center can call 278-6101 or visit its location in room 1010, across from the main entrance to the Library.