Despite years of effort from students, IU remains without a cultural center for Muslim and Middle Eastern students.
The university supports seven culture centers and institutes – the Asian Culture Center, First Nations Educational and Cultural Center, Jewish Culture Center, La Casa Latino Cultural Center, LGBTQ+ Culture Center, Neal Marshall Black Culture Center and the African American Arts Institute.
But to some students, the current lineup has glaring omissions.
Students have been advocating for several years for the creation of new culture centers for the Muslim and Middle Eastern communities. The Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which oversees the existing culture centers, touts the culture centers as “community learning spaces, providing an array of unique programming and events” and describes them as “a home away from home.”
Students believe that new Muslim or Middle Eastern centers would similarly provide a safe space for students on campus and offer built-in advocates.
“I think it would be another place where I could feel more engaged on campus and more included and I think it could be a really good space for IU to start those conversations and make sure that their Muslim and Arab students also feel welcome on campus,” Hafsa Khan, a junior studying biology and environmental science, said.
Despite past talks with IU, little progress
Last year, Khan served as the president of the Muslim Student Association (MSA). She said she was involved in several conversations, in partnership with the Middle Eastern Student Association, with the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion about the creation of new culture centers. Khan says they spoke to both James Wimbush, the former vice president of DEI who stepped down from the position in July to return to a faculty role, and Rashad Nelms, the current vice president for DEI. Despite these talks, which Khan says began back in 2022, no progress has been made.
“Everything that I’ve been a part of has been more like, ‘this is something that we hope is gonna happen,’ but it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of motion of how it’s going to happen,” Khan said.
The Office of the Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion declined the IDS’s multiple requests for interviews but said in an email that “IU is constantly assessing needs and adapting resources to best ensure support for members of the campus community.”
Other groups also believe creating new culture centers is important.
The IU Divestment Coalition and Palestine Solidarity Committee, which formed an encampment in Dunn Meadow for 100 days this spring and summer in protest of the Israel-Palestine War, listed the establishment of Muslim and Middle Eastern Culture Centers as one of their demands from the university on a petition.
Establishing a new culture center is also a priority for the FUSE administration, which currently leads IU Student Government. In campaign materials last year, FUSE pledged to form a Middle Eastern, North African and Muslim (MENAM) Culture Center in its first 100 days in office. Though those 100 days have now passed without any action, the administration says it remains committed to establishing a new center.
Alexa Avellanada, executive secretary of communication for IUSG said in an email that IU administration is withholding an audit report of the existing culture centers.
“Due to the IU administration’s withholding of the audit report, there have been numerous unexpected delays. What we were told is that a new culture center cannot be established while an audit is being written or reviewed,” Avellanada said in an email. “The FUSE administration, because of this, has their hands tied, but we continue to advocate strongly for the new culture center's establishment.”
The Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion confirmed the existence of such a report but said it “remains confidential and deliberative,” according to spokeswoman Elizabeth Blevins.
One difference between the advocates is their vision for the culture centers. Khan believes there should be two separate culture centers, one for Middle Eastern students and one for Muslim students. She said most Muslims in the world are not Middle Eastern, and so a distinction between the two centers is important. Avellanada wrote that although the FUSE administration has been advocating for a joint center, they “would gladly accommodate to the student body.”
Benefits of a center
Students envision a culture center as a place of education and community.
Khan hopes for a Muslim cultural center that offers education for both the university as a whole and for the Muslim community. She described an “Ask a Muslim” tabling event that MSA held last year, in which they offered free chai tea and invited students to ask any questions they had about the Muslim faith, as a vision of the types of events the center could hold. She also described education for Muslim students on their resources at IU, such as how to report bias incidents.
Khan said she sees a lot of value in having IU staff members at a campus culture center who can advocate for the needs of students in that community. Khan said she had to find a quiet corner of the Biology Building to pray because there was nowhere else for her to go. Though there is an Interfaith Prayer Space at the Indiana Memorial Union, she believes students deserve more options.
“If we had a Muslim Culture Center, they’d have staff and people that work for the university that can be advocates of like, ‘hey in some of the bigger spaces, like in the bigger spaces on campuses… there should be a little space for students to pray,’” she said.
Imran Mihas, who is on the executive board of both MSA and the Middle Eastern Student Association (MESA), described a vision for mentoring programs, in which older Middle Eastern students are paired up with underclassmen just arriving at IU. He says this would be particularly helpful for younger students who are struggling to find a community on campus.
Student groups bridge the gap
Until a Middle Eastern or Muslim culture center can be established, student organizations are trying to fill the void. MSA and MESA do their best to support students on campus, often serving as both social groups and advocacy groups, Khan and Mihas said.
MSA has an office in the Student Involvement Tower that is “doing overtime,” Khan said, functioning as an office, gathering space and prayer room all in one.
“There are a lot of culture centers already on campus, and we kind of have to congregate with ourselves at just random areas,” Farah Rafa, the vice president of MESA, said.
Without clear gathering spaces, students in MESA often gather in a free room at the Student Involvement Center intended for use by all student organizations. On one Wednesday afternoon, the room was full, with at least 25 students of Middle Eastern descent, studying and socializing in what is essentially a makeshift culture center.
“We’re trying our best to create a good community, but there’s only so much we can do as student orgs,” Rafa said.
All three student leaders believe creating Middle Eastern and Muslim culture centers on campus would be a welcome resource for students in these communities.
"There are so many culture centers already and I just think that we’re deserving of one as well,” Rafa said.
