In February, university administrators stripped all the artwork from the Multicultural Community Center (MCC). To those who are supporting a campaign to defend the MCC and restore the art, the changes amount to a whitewashing of what they view as the center’s essential purpose. In this Berkeleyside article, AARC affiliates are quoted providing historical context.
“The administration is saying, ‘Oh no, you’re not being inclusive,’ when the Multicultural Community Center was founded to be inclusive of marginalized students,” said Sarah Halabe, an Asian American Research Center graduate student. From the beginning, the Multicultural Community Center reflected the movement it emerged from, stated Harvey Dong, an AARC faculty member. "There’s all kinds of racial wedge-type politics being played in the state of California, but then here you have students taking a forward step," Dong said in relation to the 1999 Third World Liberation Front strike that led to the establishment of the MCC.
April 27, 2026