The newly built Multicultural Center, a $20 million expansion at the Viking Union complex, provides a much-needed new home for the Associated Students’ Ethnic Student Center and space for Student Advocacy and Identity Resource Centers.
The expansion brings together the new Multicultural Center, Viking Union, Bookstore, Multipurpose Room and the KUGS radio station within one building that honors and supports Western’s growing diverse population and engages the campus to better understand multiple cultures.
The AS’s Blue Resource Center, Disability Outreach Center, Queer Resource Center and Womxn’s Identity Resource Center, along with LGBTQ+ Western and the Western Success Scholars, the new program for former and current foster and unaccompanied homeless youth, are also located in the new Multicultural Center.
The expansion is a result of many years of activism by students urging the university to become a more truly inclusive institution. After the AS started the project with a $50,000 investment to study where best to move the ESC, the student body passed a $30-per-quarter student fee to fund the project. WWU institutional funds and savings realized from refunding some existing Viking Union bonds also helped pay for construction.
