By Donna Hemmila

When the Cross-Cultural Center opened at UC Irvine in 1974, it was the first program of its kind in the UC system.

Now a model for university campuses, the center celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. For Kevin Huie, appointed director in August, the multicultural mission that inspired the center's creation has even greater value to offer today's students.

In the 1970s a multicultural movement in higher education grew out of the civil rights movement of the '60s. Educators, Huie said, recognized a need to provide a safe place on campuses for students of color to feel safe and welcome.

"We've evolved through the last couple of decades," said Huie. "The model has progressed so the multiculturalism experience has expanded its mission beyond its social activities to secure inclusiveness and diversity throughout a campus."

The center provides a "home away from home" for individual students and five umbrella ethnic student organizations: the Afrikan Student Union, Alyansa ng mga Kababayan, American Indian Student Association, Asian Pacific Student Association and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan. Dozens of other student groups use the center's services and meeting spaces.

"The students want to have fun when they come here," said Huie. "They want to walk into a stress-free zone. It's an escape from the rest of the campus."

The center also sponsors academic, outreach and retention programs aimed at enhancing campus diversity and cultural awareness. The annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium, held this year from Jan. 19 to 22, included a nonviolent-resistance teach-in; volunteer activities packing boxes for the local food bank; a march and rally; and a lecture from civil rights lawyer Lani Guinier, the first tenured black female professor at Harvard Law School.
 
"I think the center is important on campus because it's a safe place for different people to explore who they are," said Matty Espino, a Filipino student who works as a center intern. "It's a chance to reconnect with your roots and where you come from and to connect with where others come from."

The center has 10 student interns, 30 volunteers and 25 peer educators in the Reaffirming Ethnic Awareness and Community Harmony program, known as R.E.A.C.H. The program provides workshop and group discussion leaders on topics such as gender and LGBT issues, cross-cultural communication and socioeconomic and class differences. The facilitators participate in student-parent orientations, student housing, R.A. training and other campus and community events.

To see how students develop their leadership skills and learn to be open-minded about other cultures are two of the things Huie most appreciates about his new job.

Huie grew up in the Chicago area and graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor's degree in history in 1994. He graduated from Loyola University Chicago with a master's in educational leadership and policy studies in 1997. Before joining UC Irvine, he served as director of the Department of Student Diversity and Multicultural Affairs at Loyola. He's worked at Notre Dame and DePaul University and is a former high school teacher. He has worked as a diversity trainer and consultant for a variety of nonprofit and educational organizations including the Chicago Public Schools.

Throughout his career, Huie said, he has been aware of all the cutting-edge research and diversity programs that have come from the University of California. Working for UC was an exciting career decision for him.

"I'm multiracial myself," said Huie. "I think people need to spend time with people outside their own cultural group. Having that experience with others is going to help with experiences after graduation."

Donna Hemmila is editor of Our University.