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Today, the Office of Multicultural Affairs is prominently located in the Schine Student
Center on the campus of Syracuse University. It employs 15 staff members, provides 12 programs,
and supports countless students from diverse backgrounds all across the campus.
This is a space where they can be themselves, and sure or not they see me as someone who
looks like them, so I may be nothing like them but for them the appearance of at least having
someone who at least physically looks like they do. They feel like that's much more comforting
and that their (they) be comfortable based on completely being their selves.
The student of color experience was not always a priority at the institution. Black
student athletes' struggles were made public in 1970. When a group that became known as
the Syracuse 8, Boycotted football practices in protest of the discrimination they experienced
on the team. A newscaster came on the air and indicated
that the African American students better yet the black football players at Syracuse
University were striking the team. Coming from the South I kind of thought everything
was alright at Syracuse, if you can understand getting that particular radio broadcast coming
through Wilkes Barre Scraton going up interstate 81 at Syracuse that Saturday afternoon and
I said to myself I said "oh my God", there are problems at Syracuse and I'm heading there.
This time of student activism continued with the African American Student association several
years later. The Office of Multicultural Affairs began
as Office of Minority Affairs in 1976. After a group of students who are members of the
student African American society had challenged the University for space and located in the
system where they can really feel like they belong.
OMA is an office that came out of a student need actually a little bit of student activism.
The African American students who came to Syracuse in the late 1960's and the early
1970's were reflecting basically the civil rights movement and of course Dr. King got
assassinated in 1968 which really created more dynamic bit of activism, black power
and all. And those were the students who were surfacing here at Syracuse University.
One of the demands was having the opportunity to hire or the university hiring a professional
staff to lead. They hired a young man from Cornell University whose name was Barry L.
Wells, He came aboard January of 1976 as the first coordinator of Minority Affairs. Barry led the program
and some initiative of the student's advisors. One of those advisors is still in the system
as a professional staff member, Kenneth Schoening. They ask us for student volunteers they come
and then explain us the program. What we do is as the University we are recruiting more
Latino and African American they wanted current students when they got here to fall, be their
mentors and advisors. Just to help them navigate into campus, explain to them what they need
to take care of business and how to take care of business and that was a positive, once
I heard of it I said yes, where do I sign up.
The unfortunate thing is that in 1985 they had initially thought they had done enough for
these black students, and that it was time to mainstream them.
At one point it was dissolved, administrations dissolved OMA so there wasn't an OMA office
against the dean of student's approval. He said I don't know if I would do that, but they
did. 1988, 1989 came to that point, where the students,
African American society really said, no we cant do this anymore. They in barged into
a board of trusties meeting to make their voices heard they can not prevent them from
doing so and the board of advisors were moved to one area to another. Hiding place I understand
the students found them so they went there and made their voices heard and it became
a big issue on campus. Ultimately, office as the students knew it
was dissolved. In 1985 Charles Wynder, then president of the student afromerican society
stated in the Daily orange, " The university has stripped the office of minority affairs
of staff. This, an overall effort to the university to mainstream its activities and the minority
students are losing in the mainstream." It wasn't till 1997, 12 years later, when Barry
Wells led a division as interims senior vice president of student affairs that the office
was finally reestablished to the Office of Multicultural Affairs. In 2001, Dr. James
Duah- Agyeman director of multicultural affairs and continues to led the office today
When I got here we were negotiating salary and everything, I was negotiating for computers
and telephones. We were doing all the work, supporting the
kids as best as we could with what resources we had and to look at the staff now is amazing.
Office of Multicultural Affairs would exist, or would need to exist was really important.
If we didn't have the Office of Multicultural Affairs many historically under represented
students wouldn't have a voice or wouldn't have an administrative body being able to
represent their interests. I would have students say what do you guys
do? I would say we support the under represented students and we are here, we are your home
away from home.