Future of Basement Café space is up for discussion

Taylor Pagán, Staff member

The Associated Students of Diablo Valley College are considering possible uses for the vacant Basement Café in the Margaret Lesher Student Union Building.

“We need to decide what will be most beneficial, not just for this year, but for every year after,” ASDVC President Keith Montes said.

Diversity affair officer Lily Yi spoke on the behalf of her committee during the ASDVC meeting on Oct. 7.

“We are working to write a proposal for a Multicultural Center for the newly available space downstairs, the old Basement Café,” she said.

Yi said that the Diversity Affair Committee is currently in the process of brainstorming ideas and looking at the Multicultural Centers of the University of California Berkeley and the University of California Santa Barbara as models.

ASDVC member Eli Pipersburg supports the proposal. The multicultural center will “allow students to indulge in different cultures. It’s possibly one of the best ideas we can have for this room,” He said.

However, student Scott Brown, not a member of ASDVC, said, “Limiting it to that description would be an error.”

Montes, in response to the opposition, said, “We need to flush out what that even means.” The Diversity Affair Committee plans to provide clarity with an upcoming mission statement.