January 2025 update from the Centers
Dear Western Community,
Welcome to 2025! The Centers for Student Access, Community, and Intercultural Engagement are hard at work creating spaces of meaningful learning, identity and leadership development, and joyful celebration for Western students. Here's a photo of The Centers' team in our day of learning together on January 6.
We know this is a time of heightened stress for some people in our community, including many students and colleagues who hold marginalized identities and are concerned about policy attacks that threaten safety, well-being, and dignity. The Centers are here, working more robustly with students than ever, and looking forward to further growing our collaborative student development work.
Students, check out the info below for ways to get involved in The Centers’ programs and how we can support you. Faculty and staff, familiarize yourselves with what The Centers are up to this quarter so you can connect your classes and individual students with these programs and services. Please reach out with questions!
Building Community
The winter months can make social connections especially important. Join LGBTQ+ Western and the Disability Outreach Center for regular drop-in spaces to meet other students and have relaxed facilitated conversation. Club meetings and events are also great ways to meet people; the Ethnic Student Center and LGBTQ+ Western share info about active clubs on their websites and social media; clubs’ social media is the best way to learn about upcoming meetings.
Centers Lunch & Learns that happen every Wednesday in the Multicultural Centers are great spaces for chill, relevant, learning in community. Plus, free food! Lunch & Learns this quarter cover topics like healthy relationships, getting involved in student government, celebrating Black History Month, and art as a tool for resistance and social change in Latin America. All are welcome!
Academic & Career Supports
Academic Advising and Careers Services supports are available in the Multicultural Center, Disability Access Center, and Black Student Coalition at designated times. Meet with an academic advisor as you get ready for Spring registration and connect with Career Services as you prep for summer and post-graduation job searches.
We also work closely with staff in the Counseling & Wellness Center and the Tutoring Center to provide support spaces, study sessions, and study skills workshops. If you’re part of a club where members are dealing with a difficult topic or could benefit from gaining strategies for focusing on schoolwork when the world is so distracting, reach out to the Centers email and we can help.
Engaging Events
This is a sampling of the many fun and informative events The Centers are hosting Winter quarter:
- Cafecito Con DOC & DAC on Wednesday, January 15 from 10am to noon is an informal time to connect in La Plaza with student support staff from the Disability Access and Outreach Centers. La Plaza, Western’s Latine Student Center, now has a space in the Multicultural Center in room 749. Check it out and enjoy hot cocoa, coffee, and cookies, too! Follow @wwulaplaza on Instagram or check The Centers events page for more La Plaza happenings.
- The DAC is holding workshops about scheduling quizzes, exams, and finals in myDAC. The workshop will be held three times, starting on Thursday, January 16 at 3pm in the DAC.
- Celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Saturday, January 18 from 10am to 2pm at Bellingham High School. Organized by the Community Consortium for Cultural Recognition with shared leadership of Western’s Black Student Coalition, this wonderful annual event begins with a community breakfast, followed by a program at 11am and service projects at noon. Bring non-perishable food items to donate to food pantries at local schools, including Western.
- Building Unity Under a New Administration, on Tuesday, January 21 from 4 to 5:30 pm, is a panel discussion including Student Affairs staff, student leaders, and faculty. Panelists will discuss anticipated federal policy threats, working across identities and communities to address these threats and provide community care, and ways to be active in our communities and be well as we look towards the future. Co-organized by The Centers and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
- The one-year anniversary of Generations of Pride happens Wednesday, January 29 at 5pm in the Walton Theater at Mount Baker Theater. The theme of this month’s intergenerational dinner for LGBTQ+ people and allies is generations of drag!
- February is Black History Month. In addition to Lunch & Learns, check The Centers events page for other happenings and follow the Black Student Coalition, Western’s Black Student Cultural Center, on Instagram (@wwubsc).
Visit Us!
Whether you want to learn more about our programs, aren’t sure where to go for some support, want to chat about classes or the world, or need a place to do homework or relax, we’re here for you!
Multicultural Center
The Multicultural Center (MCC) on the top floor of the Viking Union includes spaces to study, cook food, and hang out. In the MCC you’ll find the LGBTQ+ Student Lounge (room 722), La Plaza Latine Student Center (room 749), the Blue Resource Center (rooms 720 & 721), and many of our staff offices. Weekly office hours with LGBTQ+ Western staff are on their about & contact website.
Black Student Coalition
The Black Student Coalition (BSC) on the fifth floor of the Viking Union (room 504) includes spaces to study with a group or alone, relax, and make friends. You'll also find the office of the Black student retention specialist in the BSC.
DAC & DOC
The Disability Access and Outreach Centers are next to one another on the ground floor of Wilson Library (rooms 165 & 170). You can meet with an access manager about disability accommodations in the DAC and do homework or chat with friends in the DOC. The Disability Access Center has weekly drop-in hours for meeting with an access manager in person or on Zoom.
The Centers staff look forward to seeing you this Winter quarter. Reach out, get connected, and take good care of yourselves and one another.
My best,
Litav
Litav K. Langley
Assistant Vice President for Student Access, Community, and Intercultural Engagement
About the Centers
The Centers include three Student Affairs departments that advance holistic student development and inclusive success: the Disability Access Center (DAC), LGBTQ+ Western, and the Office of Multicultural Student Services (MSS).
Within the Office of Multicultural Student Services are the Black Student Coalition, Blue Resource Center, Ethnic Student Center, and La Plaza Latine Student Center. Each of these centers are led by student development professionals.
The Disability Access Center facilitates disabled students’ access to all aspects of university life. The Disability Outreach Center (DOC), a program of the DAC, builds community and provides peer-led educational sessions and resource referrals.
LGBTQ+ Western advances thriving for diverse LGBTQ+ students by collaboratively engaging the Western community with transformational knowledge, resources, advocacy and celebration.