In late March, Vice President of San Diego State’s Student Affairs James Kitchen visited Sacramento State to determine what the Multi-Cultural Center needed. His April 2 report addressed many students’ concerns, all except the hiring of a permanent director.

Kitchen’s report suggested the center work to improve its marketing, mission statement and outreach programs to students. He also suggested it move to a more visible location and to develop a working relationship with Student Affairs and Academic Affairs.

The center has been without a full-time director for about two years now, and a neutral party could not help the situation, as both students and administration anticipated. Vice President of Student Affairs Ed Jones said it was ironic Kitchen did not mention it in his formal statement.

“That was our very question: When is the permanent director going to be hired? ?We are concerned as to whether our voice is really being heard,” said Ricky Gutierrez, student assistant at the Multi-Cultural Center and member of Sac State organization Coalition for Cultural Opportunities in Leadership and Overall Retention of Students (C-COLORS).

C-COLORS has been actively involved in pushing for a full-time director since its creation of a 10-page proposal to the Multi-Cultural Advisory Group Nov. 15.

Six months later, it is still not determined exactly when the administration will hire a permanent director.

Though it was absent in Kitchen’s report, the center’s Interim Director Analia Mendez said there will definitely be a permanent director, but the hiring process will be lengthy.

A member of the Multi-Cultural Advisory Board, Mendez said the board hopes to have a full-time director by next semester, but before one can be hired, procedures need to take place.

“The board needs to talk about it and make sure we all agree what needs to be in the position description and then we need to take it to Human Resources to get it approved that way?and then you have to advertise it for a certain amount of time, and at this point, we’re looking to do a national search,” Jones said.

Jones reflected on what he believes to be the director’s role.

“They need to be administratively sound to make sure budgets of hiring are done correctly; understand multicultural programs; reach out to campus community; reach out to the greater Sacramento community that can tie in and work with students. They have to be somebody that students can feel they can truly wrap their arms around and someone accessible to students,” he said.

The board has met throughout the semester at least twice a month – approximately every two weeks – for a two-hour period.

Considering the semester will be over this month, and the administration aims to have a permanent director by next semester, Jones said the board will probably meet over the summer.

During the Friday Multi-Cultural Center Advisory Board meeting in which 19 people were present, the board did not get through half of its agenda items. As a result, Jones introduced the idea of the board breaking up into subcommittees for more productivity, since he said it has not gotten a lot of work done lately due to the great amount of public comment it has received.

“When we get closer to the ground, that’s when people start having the disagreements,” Jones said.

The board has not released any public documents that outline what it has done for the center since it has been active in February.

Mendez said there will be an open letter that will be released to the general public.

“I don’t want to give you the exact time on that, but we’ve been working on it for the last two weeks. It addresses some of the concerns; some information of the direction of the center. Overall, the work that we’ve been doing,” she said.

Gutierrez said he wants more to come from the advisory board.”Right now it just seems like they’re going through talks. The advisory board should be taking action; should be passing motions; should be passing proposals; should be making public statements; doing press releases?at the moment, all they’re doing is going through talks,” Gutierrez said.

Mendez said when something is being revitalized, the process takes time.

“I think that’s important, because when things are rushed, you may not get the product that you want,” Mendez said.

Mendez said she will not answer whether she will be applying for the permanent director position once everything is in place. The center’s former director and member of the board, Leonard Valdez, left in December 2005 to become director of student conduct.

Director of the Women’s Resource Center Patricia Grady served as interim director of the center from December 2005 to Jan. 22.

James Manseau Sauceda, founding and current director of the Multi-Cultural Center at Long Beach State University, said students need consistent leadership in the form of a director, and a full-time commitment for that directorship is needed, no matter the format.

“It’s understandable how leadership cycles are and people are appointed in interim positions, but interim keeps any strategic planning from occurring because that person knows they won’t be there that long, and they can’t really get things moving forward,” Sauceda said.

Even though Kitchen did not recommend the hiring of a permanent director to take place, Jones said the administration will be doing so anyway.

“I can’t believe people are protesting me on this thing when we’re going for the same thing and going in the same direction,” he said.

Jacqueline Tualla can be reached at [email protected]