Campus space for Latinx Unity Council still in the works

Since protesting in the fall for their own space on campus and representation, the Latinx Unity Council has been meeting with Vice Chancellor Winston Crisp to find temporary solutions and plan for the future. 

The Latinx Unity Council, including the Carolina Hispanic Association and the Carolina Latina/o Collaborative, currently uses a part of Craige North Residence Hall for their activities.

Carlos Mendiola, co-president of the Carolina Hispanic Association, said meetings with Crisp in November went well, although in terms of gaining a center there has not been much progress.

“They have assured us of the other things that we’re also working towards, like one of the things is:  we’re trying to get more representation, and through that they’ve added more Spanish speakers to the financial aid office so that way parents having questions about financial aid and stuff, they can also be included,” Mendiola said.

Mendiola said administration has been receptive at all the meetings and they are working on having an executive director for the Carolina Latina/o Collaborative, getting more self-identified Latinx staff in different departments and making the CLC more accessible to students.

Crisp said he has worked with leaders from the CLC to improve the space in Craige North by providing them keys for better access to the building, equipment upgrades and expanding the current space.

He said these efforts are meant to serve as a temporary solution, although it is too early to say that a permanent solution would include a new space for the Latinx community.

“What we’re trying to do is look comprehensively at all of the different needs for space that are coming up and instead of dealing with one issue at a time as it becomes the issue of the day or as people become vocal about it, but to look at all of our space needs comprehensively and try to figure out the best way to proceed,” Crisp said. “And in the meantime, all you can really do is try to work with the spaces that we have to try to make them better and I think that’s what we’re doing with the space that the CLC currently has.”

Crisp said he will confirm with the Department of Housing and Residential Education that updates made to the Craige North space over winter break have been successful and effective. 

“Undoubtedly we’ll be sitting down with them hopefully in the next few weeks to sort of assess how it’s gone, is it actually helping, are there other tweaks or things that we can do at the space,” Crisp said.

Logan Pratico, one of the political action chairpeople of CHispA, said the Latinx community feels they don’t have a voice on campus because there hasn't been much progress toward getting a new space.

“I understand that there’s a lot of logistics that go into it but at the same time I think that they have to realize that by not acknowledging CHispA and not saying that they deserve their own space, the way that that looks on the Latinx community is that they are almost at a lower level — which they in no way are — and it’s sort of things like that that are constantly reinforcing the hierarchies that we see on campus," Pratico said. "It’s the subtle things."

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