A Historical Legacy

A thumbnail sketch of the Center for Multicultural Affairs' mission and purpose on the CU-Boulder campus is a reminder that CMA represents one of the most significant moments in CU history. CMA is grounded in its spectacular relationship with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Today there continues to be a specific focus on the students of color and on providing them the means and opportunities to have cultural and personal venues to a community of camaraderie, support, inspiration, and caring partnerships throughout their academic, social and personal experiences on campus.

Ensuring access to academic excellence was the final prong of the Civil Rights Movement mandates. CU-Boulder, in 1968, met this challenge by instituting four ethnic/race-specific and one migrant-profile Educational Opportunity Programs (EOPs) whose purpose was to recruit and retain students of color. Of course, CU-Boulder fully acknowledged that the whole of the University bore this responsibility and upheld this premise by ensuring counseling and academic support services for these students via the EOP programs. In 1982, the five EOP programs merged into one EOP department which then, in 1984, came to be called CU Opportunity.

It was at this time that CU Opportunity provided recruiting, academic and counseling services to students. The counseling component of CU Opportunity was uniquely comprised of ethnic/race-specific counselors from each of the original five EOPs. However, 1984 saw the merging of CUOP recruiting unit with the CU Admissions Office, CUOP academic services became a stand-alone department and CUOP counseling services merged with CU's Counseling Center and was called Ethnic Student Support Program (ESSP). Ten years later, in 1994, ESSP was called the Cultural Unity Student Center and then de-merged and formed today's Center for Multicultural Affairs.

Written by Cleo Estrada, August 22, 2002
Student Services Counselor for the Center for Multicultural Affairs

Our Reason for Being

The Center for Multicultural Affairs grew out of a demand for justice and for people to be treated equally and with respect. Civil rights, multiculturalism and social justice remains at the heart and the spirit of an organization and it's people dedicated to those very beginning tenets of freedom. We believe that our 'beloved community' is one in which we actively participate in, grow, nurture and cherish for our future generation so that we can live in a socially responsible world.

We strive to empower, reflect, support, and nurture our student community and to provide pluralistic opportunities for inclusion. These come from a vision and a belief to do the right thing and a passion for developing multicultural competencies and ways of knowing and being. In each service, reward comes in the form of hard-won grace, moments of connection, and the success of our students and communities.

Our values reflect those of the inspirational freedom fighters and civil rights warriors of history and what they promoted. The approach we take towards service delivery and programming demonstrates democracy and responsibility. We have a collective responsibility to stand up for the rights of not only our own communities but against all who violate another person's right to be treated fairly and with dignity and respect. The humanity that we must seek to achieve if we want to leave our children with a joyful existence is one that must embrace all of our unique qualities and expressions of 'self'. To honor the dream, to strive for a better world…this is both our great legacy we continue and our rallying call for action.

Staying true to our core values during forty-plus years in higher education has helped us create an organization we're proud to be at and to work for. Our focus on providing the best services possible has brought us success, invaluable experiences and lifelong partnerships.

-Leslie Wong, Programs Manager, Center for Multicultural Affairs
March 5, 2012