As a top-ranking research institution, UW–Madison is recognized as a community for students all around the globe. This spring marks 35 years of the Multicultural Student Center (MSC) serving as a home away from home for many students here at UW.
Founded in 1988, the MSC was established to support the academic lives of students of color. Through enriching programs and services, inclusive spaces, and dedicated resources, the MSC centers, affirms and celebrates the diverse and intersectional identities of students of color and other underrepresented students in order to cultivate a sense of belonging and community while strengthening all students’ capacity to learn, lead and thrive.
Today, the MSC includes nine staff members and four identity centers: the Black Cultural Center (2017), APIDA Student Center (2019), Latinx Cultural Center (2019), and Indigenous Student Center (2021). The MSC also provides programs and services that support Middle Eastern and North African students.
To honor this milestone, the MSC’s 35th Anniversary Gala was held on April 4, 2024 for all students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community members to attend. The event featured a keynote address by founding director, Candace McDowell, who acknowledged both the struggles and successes of the MSC during her 22-year tenure. Four student organizations performed cultural dances (Grupo Folklorico de UW-Madison, Vietnamese Student Association, Elevation Dance Team, and Unit.E).
In recognition of its support of the MSC since its inception (the MSC’s first location was the Browsing Library in Memorial Union), the Wisconsin Union revealed its annual Mini Terrace Chair honoring the 35th anniversary of the MSC, with proceeds from sales to benefit the MSC’s food insecurity initiative.
In addition to the gala, the MSC’s art gallery and historical exhibit, “Exist, Resist, Persist: 35 Years of the MSC” was on display in the Class of 1973 Art Gallery from March 11 through April 5. The exhibit, developed in partnership with the Rebecca L. Blank Center for Campus History, included historical information and archival materials alongside original artworks that depict the meaning and impact of the MSC.
One student in particular, Maggie Konig, has dedicated herself to understanding the rich history of the MSC by sorting through the past.
“Last year, the director of the MSC, Claudia Guzmán, approached me with the idea of doing something special for the 35 year anniversary of the MSC and I agreed to help her,” Konig said. Konig was already serving as a programming intern for the APIDA Student Center since fall 2022.
Konig began her research last summer, referring to original documents housed in the MSC, UW archives, and even Steenbock Library, piecing together a history that spanned beyond the inception of the MSC to the 1960s, when Black students began demanding increased support and services, resulting in the Afro-American and Race Relations Center, which was on campus from 1968-1973.
“Whereas we think that the MSC’s history only spans 35 years, it’s clear that students of color have been making their voices heard here over the last five decades,” Konig stated.
From sorting 20-year-old MSC meeting minutes, to learning more about the Holley Report (a critical archival piece in the process of the MSC establishment spearheaded by then-student Charles Holley), Konig has seen it all.
“I noticed when reading news articles and transcripts from oral histories, people would often talk about certain concepts that I feel in many cases we are still fighting for to this day.
At a predominantly white institution, for the few students of color here, it’s so often they experience feelings of isolation or only being perceived by peers through stereotypes they may have encountered.”
That being said, as a welcoming place for all, the MSC is dedicated to continuing its fight for students of all marginalized identities.
“I think so much of the MSC is built on community, ” Konig said. “It’s never just one person doing everything. It’s always been collective and collaborative. Even in just planning these celebrations, we can see that coming forward; everyone steps up. We help each other.”
For more information about the MSC, visit https://msc.wisc.edu/ or stop by the second floor of the Red Gym. To contribute to the MSC’s $50,000 fundraising campaign, visit go.wisc.edu/MSC-gifts.
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Four student organizations performed cultural dances at the MSC 35th Anniversary Gala
