Cultural Resource Centers Find Permanent Home in Future U Renovation

 

Imagine: By the end of the decade, a modern, student-centric hub anchors the Cal State Long Beach campus.  

It’s a student union fit with an array of dining options that guarantee no one has to leave campus for lunch. Social and study spaces promote peer connection, community and learning. A mobility-minded layout ensures easy access for all students throughout. 

It’s a space configured with the needs of today’s students in mind — because their ideas helped design it.  

The Future U project, a year-long campaign to gather student feedback for a renovation and expansion of CSULB’s existing University Student Union, has aimed to capture how this shared, central space could be transformed to best support future learners at The Beach.  

Helmed by the Associated Students, Inc., the Future U alternative consultation campaign culminated on April 28, 2023, when the Student Fee Advisory Committee unanimously adopted the project proposal. The campaign garnered thousands of responses through surveys, tabling events and an ongoing concept exhibit housed inside the University Dining Plaza, highlighting the most pressing issues students hope an updated campus hub might address.    

The project to expand and renovate the USU is anticipated to break ground around the summer of 2025, with anticipated completion by fall 2028. This comes after decades of delayed major infrastructure improvements on the facility that has served students since 1972.    

As feedback is collected, familiar themes have underpinned many comments canvassed so far. Among them: A desire for more food options, spaces to work and connect with friends, accessibility upgrades to move around without difficulty, and technology improvements to ensure broad connectivity within the facility.  Initial renderings of a possible USU renovation feature a modern, open concept with more spaces for lounging, working or socializing.  

The design explores a 50,000 square-foot expansion with ideas for more food options and seating, wellness spaces, and a student resources wing, among other improvements.  With a recent agreement signed between the Associated Students, Inc. and Student Affairs, a fixed space will be dedicated for CSULB’s cultural resource centers. 

Centers for Cultural Resources

For 60 years, cultural resource centers have provided CSULB students and organizations with a safe space to come together and celebrate all identities. But without complete professional staff and financial support, these offices have yet to realize their full potential. 

To help fulfill CSULB’s longstanding commitment to fully support cultural resource centers on campus, efforts to fund new staff positions and identify a permanent space where these centers can succeed at The Beach found footing this past academic year. The team behind our mission to fortify CSULB as a student-ready university is leading this charge, and through their work, The Beach is reimagining how these resources can best serve the students of today.  

The project, which gained momentum this past academic year, serves as a meaningful example of how Beach 2030 leaders are taking action to foster a community of belonging for all students — a tenet of CSULB’s mission to be a student-ready university.  

An investment in the well-being of students, efforts to fully institutionalize these centers will maximize their benefit for our community.  

Five existing cultural resource centers at CSULB are currently housed in a building slated for demolition, necessitating the move to a new location to ensure students have access to the valuable services offered by them. More than two years in the making, this project launched in April 2021 with a kick-off event for student leaders, where they were encouraged to discuss openly their needs and concerns about possible relocation of these campus cultural resource centers. 

Efforts recently have focused on soliciting student feedback through an inclusive consultation process. New location preferences have been documented, and in-person meetings with student groups were completed in spring 2023. Stakeholder groups identified the University Student Union as the most appropriate location for the cultural resource centers, and in early summer 2023, the Associated Students, Inc. and Student Affairs formalized an agreement to include the resource centers in the renovated and expanded union scheduled for completion in fall of 2028.  

At the same time, to fill a funding gap that currently exists, this project solidifies funds for staff support professionals in two of the five cultural resource centers which lack these positions. These roles will be supported for one full calendar year, with the goal of identifying permanent funds in year two. 

As we prioritize actions that build community at CSULB, intentional and concerted efforts to elevate culture, celebrate diversity and champion all identities help achieve this mission.