The Mary Jean Price Walls Multicultural Resource Center at Missouri State University has been renamed. It is now referred to as the Bear Cave Student Resource Center.
The name change came less than a month after MSU ended its diversity, equity and inclusion programs and closed the Office of Inclusive Engagement.
The new name was chosen by students.
Students received an email Monday announcing that “The Bear Cave, formerly the Multicultural Resource Center, has officially launched.”
The message read: “The Bear Cave Student Resource Center will broaden its scope of programs offered to the students and campus community.”
The message also noted the center “reflects the staff’s continued commitment to engagement, identity development, community and support.”
Shortly after taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to dismantle DEI efforts at the federal level and in all levels of public education.
Missouri lawmakers have also introduced bills to eliminate or reduce publicly funded DEI programs. In recent years, DEI efforts have become controversial and politicized.
The center is located on the first floor of the Plaster Student Union. It is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
It has included a common space, conference room, event space, study rooms, computer closet, resource library and clothing closet.
Most of those spaces remain, although there is no mention on the website for a clothing closet. Here are how two of the spaces, and their possible uses, are described:
•The Retreat and Refocus room is open to anyone on campus “who may need a quiet space for spiritual or religious practice throughout the day.” The site noted it was available for a Muslim student taking daily prayers, Christian students needing a place for Bible study, or ceremonies and rituals.
•The Resource Library has fiction and entertainment materials along with “standardized test prep materials” and craft items for projects and assignments.
The center had been a resource for LGBTQ+ students. After the name change, that is not specifically mentioned.
In an update shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday, the university noted the following changes to the space:
•LGBTQ+ Services are temporarily unavailable as MSU works to expand and enhance our student support offerings;
•The Transition Closet is unavailable while undergoing revision;
•Programming has been restructured;
•The Room of Reflection is now the area for Retreat and Refocus;
•Every employee will retain their position. The job titles for staff, graduate assistants, and student employees reflect the new name of the space: Bear Cave Student Resource Center;
•The website, email address and social media handles have been updated.
According to the mission posted online, the center will create critical programming, intercommunity dialogue and academic enrichment opportunities.
The center’s vision statement calls for a campus that “empowers, celebrates, and supports students to express their authentic selves regardless of age, disability status, socioeconomic class, veteran status, nationality, race, ethnicity, indigeneity, gender identity and expression, sexual and romantic orientation, religion and spiritual belief, or language.”
MSU President Richard “Biff” Williams said, in an earlier email to the community, that the campus is “supportive of our students − creating a safe environment to learn, grow and develop into adults who are prepared for a changing world. This culture, this environment doesn’t cease to exist.”
Williams added, in the email: “We move forward with the same dedication to the education and development opportunities that we had a week ago, a month ago, a year ago.”
A historical timeline showed the university first used the term “Multicultural Resource Center” in 1995, although some multicultural services were provided as far back as 1988.
The MRC bounced to different spots on campus and new staff and services were added over the years. For example, an assistant director for LGBTQ+ initiatives was added in 2014.
In 2016, the Mary Jean Price Walls Multicultural Center Annex was established in the basement of Freddy House.
In 2020 and 2021, an expansion was completed. It moved to the Plaster Student Union.
SPRINGFIELD NEWS-LEADER