Culture center finds new home

In July, the office doors were locked. By August, the board resigned. Some wondered if the First Nations Educational and Cultural Center, created in April of 2007 to serve the needs of IU’s Native communities, would survive.

Less than a month later, IU administrators gave their unqualified support for the cultural center, and now the FNECC is moving to a new location – Weatherly Hall in Ashton Center.

Those involved with the center hope the new location, which is more accessible than the previous one in Eigenmann Hall, will improve its recognition on campus.

“The easier you make it for people to get there, the better the chances that they will come,” said Lillian Casillas, who was recently appointed interim director of the FNECC. Casillas is also director of La Casa Latino Culture Center.

The center was located on the sixth floor of Eigenmann, and Casillas said it had trouble attracting a large group of students.

That was before the locks on the center’s doors were changed this summer because other organizations were moving in and out of offices on the floor. Students involved with the center were told they could check out keys, but many found that system, plus the center’s lack of a director, frustrating. That’s when the board resigned.

“We didn’t have the support that we needed or the ability to do basic things,” said Rebecca Riall, a graduate student and former FNECC board member. For her, the lock change was the last thing she could take.

But now that the center has a new location, though the move-in date is unknown, and a director in Casillas, Riall said she is excited about the center’s possibilities, despite her concerns about how the center will run without a board.

She remembers a couple years ago when IU’s Native American groups shared a 6-by-6-foot office, and even that flooded.

After the flood, the students decided it was time for a more official location, which prompted the move to Eigenmann.

But that location was always identified as temporary, said Charles Sykes, executive director of IU’s multicultural initiatives.

Similar to IU’s other cultural centers, like the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, La Casa and the Muslim Student Union, the FNECC will offer a variety of educational and social networking opportunities, Casillas said.

She also said the center is not just aimed at people who refer to themselves as “First Nations” – a term that describes American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians; it is open to anyone who wants to learn more about the First Nations’ cultures.  

“It is an education tool,” Casillas said, “through its programming, through its outreach efforts, and because it provides opportunities for people to learn more about the Native Americans across the United States and even Latin America.”