At the end of 1998, the Student Center Governing Board decided to name the new multicultural center after Richard Oakes, the well-known Native American activist.
The Board approved this for his dedication to promoting social justice, human rights, and higher education through intellectual activism and self-determination.
The Richard Oakes Multicultural Center and the Cesar Chavez Student Center gratefully acknowledge to Native American peoples that it, together with the campus of San Francisco State University, that they occupy a site that historically was belonging to the Native Muwekma Ohlone people.
Richard Oakes has always been promoting the basic idea that Native American peoples have a right to control their own destiny, and a right to justice, respect, and sovereignty. , respect and control over their own destinies. Richard Oakes’ legacy is reflecting all the struggles of Native American peoples to maintain their identity, their land, and their ways of life.
Mission Statement
The Richard Oakes Multicultural Center provides an environment that promotes and enhances discourse to foster a multi-ethnic, culturally conscious University. While its programs are primarily student-focused and directed, all members of SFSU and the greater community are welcome and encouraged to participate in the programs and activities of the Center. Programs and activities of ROMC include but are not limited to:
- Cultural performances, dance, music, theater, comedy, poetry, lectures.
- Instructional Related Activities
- Interdepartmental classes
- Teaching by students
- Roundtable discussions
- Exhibits
- Speakers’ forums
- Conference and workshops activities
- Art Exhibits
Goals of ROMC
- Openness to all members of the SFSU community
- Drawing in people from off-campus for multicultural events
- Helping to breakdowns walls of separatism
- Encouraging mutual education, mediation, and conflict resolution
- Providing a safe place to sit down and discuss problems
- Educating people to go beyond fear and tolerance
- Providing a place where stereotypes are broken down
- Influencing the formal curriculum of the University
- Bringing together tradition and innovation
- Reflecting changing demographics, both on and off campus
ROMC Program Council
The Program Council is an advisory council assembled for the purpose of selecting themes and approving programs sponsored by the Richard Oakes Multicultural Center. The Program Council will be composed of participants representing various areas of campus life.
Purpose of the Program Council
- Provide recommendations and guidance in developing methods and strategies for effective and engaging programs aimed at fostering a multi-ethnic, culturally conscious University.
- Supports the programs of the ROMC and its staff in improving the quality of the college experience through the promotion of multiculturalism and diversity of human and intellectual heritages.
- Supports research on multicultural issues and topics that are of wide usefulness locally or globally.
Principles and Criteria in Reviewing Proposed Programs
- Entertains all voices and experiences
- Strengthens alliances among different groups/communities
- Provides a supportive/open environment which allows for the
- Challenge of academic bias and exclusion
- Celebrates differences and encourages respectful dialogue among groups/communities
- Supportive of activist models of organizations
- Encourages equality in principle and in practice.
Location Richard Oakes Multicultural Center, resource library, and adjacent meeting rooms are situated respectively in rooms T-144, T-147, and T-143 on CCSC’s Terrace Level.
Room Specifications The ROMC has been uniquely designed to provide a feeling of openness and to symbolically reflect unity among all people through its skylight and oval shape. Users may request use of the small kitchen/food service facility that is adjacent to the ROMC. All rooms can be configured to accommodate the various style of programs due to the customized furnishes provided to each room.
