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Syracuse University has launched its expansion of first-year and upperclassmen Multicultural Living Learning Communities this fall. 

The Office of Learning Communities announced the expansion February in response to demands from #NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students protesting SU’s response to racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic incidents reported on or near campus. 

“Compared to years prior, the Multicultural Living Learning Community has seen an increase in enrollment with the expansion of another first-year MLLC and the creation of the Upperclass MLLC,” said Rob Hradsky, vice president for the student experience, in an email to The Daily Orange. 

The expansion includes adding MLLCs to the fifth and sixth floors of Ernie Davis Hall for sophomores, juniors and seniors. SU also added a first-year MLLC floor to Day Hall and expanded the existing Lawrinson Hall first-year MLLC. 

There are currently 17 first-year students residing in the Day Hall MLLC, 14 first-year students in Lawrinson, and 43 upperclassmen students in Ernie Davis, Hradksy said.

The Office of Learning Communities led the MLLC expansions, working with a variety of campus partners to secure space on the residence hall floors, Hradsky said. The office also worked to do the following: expand marketing to recruit students, provide a budget for events and programs, hire resident advisers and train and serve faculty on the living learning community team. 

A team, including a staff member who is also an adjunct faculty member in the College of Arts and Science, works with the MLLC and the students. Hradsky said this faculty member teaches a course that the first-year MLLC residents are enrolled in. 

Ana Cristina Baez Gotay, a senior majoring in environmental engineering, said her position as a resident adviser for Ernie’s sixth-floor MLLC is a “full circle” for her since she lived in Lawrinson’s multicultural living learning community during her freshman year. 

“It’s super needed to have a space like this right now,” said Baez Gotay. She said she’s grateful to be an RA for the upperclassmen MLLC because people often forget that upperclassmen, not just first-year students, need these spaces. Baez Gotay has 14 residents on her floor. 

The initial announcement from the Office of Learning Communities said the upperclassmen MLLCs in Ernie will focus on multicultural education, cross-cultural dialogue and community building. 

The upperclassmen MLLC can engage in Conversations About Race and Ethnicity, or CARE Speaks. The Office of Multicultural Affairs offers six-week dialogues, where SU community members engage in conversations about diversity.

For the Ernie MLLC, CARE dialogues take place every week on Tuesday and Wednesday, Baez Gotay said. She sends out a form each week to get residents’ input on discussion topics.

Maya Benjamin, a sophomore policy studies major, is a multicultural living learning community RA on Ernie Davis’s fifth floor. Benjamin said OMA has been very involved with the upperclassmen MLLC. 

“All new RAs are required to complete the CARE Speaks workshops, and I feel this year during RA training there was more of an emphasis on diversity and inclusion training,” Benjamin said.   

An eight-week CARE Speaks workshop that OMA runs for the MLLC kicked off Tuesday night, Benjamin said.

Although social distancing regulations have made it harder for students to connect with each other in their residence halls, both Baez Gotay and Benjamin said the RAs are finding safe ways to build community. 

During the learning community palooza a couple of weeks ago, students were able to meet up, have ice cream outside and get to learn about other cultures, Baez Gotay said. 

Benjamin has planned several events her residents can do safely, such as apple picking. 

Expanding ML LCs is a good start, but Baez Gotay said she and the other upperclassmen MLLC RAs want to collaborate with the multicultural living learning communities in Day and Lawrinson halls. They hope to create mentorship opportunities between upperclassmen and freshmen so that they can get support from other students, not just faculty and staff, Baez Gotay said. 

The Office of Learning Communities is currently finalizing the recruitment of a faculty member to serve on the MLLC team and expect to have someone in place by mid-September. 

“For the Upperclass MLLC, the faculty member would be bringing academic expertise and a passion for multicultural education, social justice and cross-cultural dialogue to the LLC,” said Hradsky. 

Published on September 9, 2020 at 11:17 pm

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