Cultural Enrichment Centers
Our cultural centers are places where you come to learn about or where you bring your unique and distinctive traditions to our campus community.
Contact or visit the following centers for more information:
Josephine White Eagle Cultural Center
Latin American Cultural Center
Malcolm X Cultural Center
Women of Color Leadership Network
Yuri Kochiyama Cultural Center
Josephine White Eagle Cultural Center (JWECC)
The Josephine White Eagle Cultural Center (JWECC) provides a warm and welcoming gathering place for Native American students, staff, and faculty at the university. Native American students from Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College and the surrounding indigenous community also use the Center. JWECC student staff organizes public lecture events for the campus, student social events, community trips, and community night potluck suppers (with community guest speakers or presenters). They also host health awareness workshops, study nights, craft nights, movie and discussion nights and schedule community meetings.
The Center includes a computer lab and the Kitty Wagner Cultural Resource Library, providing books, magazines, newspapers and videos. JWECC also provides a space for students to explore their creativity to empower themselves and each other for the taking on new interests and engagements in other sectors of the campus.
The Center also acts as a learning resource space for Kanonhsehsne residential learning community and other students wishing to participate in JWECC events.
Hours:
Monday-Thursday: 6:00-11:00 PM
Sunday: 1:00-5:00 PM
Closed during the summer and Wintersession
Location: Chadbourne Hall, Central Residential Area |Detail Map|
Phone: 413-545-1888
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Latin American Cultural Center (LACC)
Established in 1989 the LACC has been a part of the Bilingual Collegiate Program (BCP) since 2002. This cultural center serves as a place for Latino students to celebrate their cultural identity and share it with the larger UMass Amherst community. Social and cultural events organized by the students are open to the public.
The Center is equipped with computers, couches, TV and radio.
Typical events hosted by the Center in the past include: Latino Comedy Night, Salsa Workshops, Pina Colada and Carnaval Latino.
“Los esperamos!”
Hours: Monday-Thursday, 6:00 PM-12:00 AM
Closed during the summer and Wintersession
Location: 2nd Floor, Hampden Dining Commons, Southwest Residential Area
(above Southwest Café) |Detail Map|
Phone: 413-545-2073
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Malcolm X Cultural Center (MXCC)
The Malcolm X Cultural Center is a multifunctional site that provides space and opportunity for students to develop educational and social activities that enhance and broaden the awareness of the UMass Amherst campus, fellow students and the Five College area community with regards to issues that focus on the African Diaspora.
The Malcolm X Cultural Center’s goal is to promote community involvement in relation to these issues.
The Malcolm X Cultural Center is a vehicle for students to gain experience in community building and to get involved. Through providing resources, community service programming and collaborating with cultural registered student organizations and other agencies the Malcolm X Cultural Center seeks to foster an environment consistent with the values of its namesake. It is a place where self-respect, self-dignity, self–sufficiency and personal agency are modeled.
Hours: Monday-Friday, 6:00-9:00 PM
Closed during the summer and Wintersession
Location: Berkshire Dining Commons, Lower Level, Southwest Residential Area
(around the corner from Grab ‘N Go) |Detail Map|
Phone: 413-545-3042
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Women of Color Leadership Network (WOCLN)
The Women of Color Leadership Network provides a comfortable space where women of color can discover who they are and gain leadership skills necessary to make a difference in the communities of which they are a part.
WOCLN provides advocacy, mentoring and training for University women and community women of color in the Five College area. In addition, WOCLN functions as a source site for internships connecting students to those organizations whose focus includes social justice work, outreach, economic and health issues for communities of color. The program works independently and in collaboration with campus and community groups and organizations to improve the lives of women of color.
Hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM-5:00 PM
Location: 202 Wilder Hall |Detail Map|
Phone: 413-545-1671
E-mail: wocln@stuaf.umass.edu
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Yuri Kochiyama Cultural Center (YKCC)
The YKCC was named in honor of Yuri Kochiyama, a Japanese American activist, for her dedication and tireless work to address social justice issues, build bridges of communication between Asians and other communities and her dedication to the civil rights movement not only for Asians & Asian Americans but for all minorities especially African Americans and Latinos in the United States.
The YKCC recognizes that university life is not all books, exams, and papers. Therefore, the Center fosters a student-run organization in its efforts to sponsor and organize cultural and social events that create a sense of community for Asian & Asian Americans students and educate the UMass Amherst campus about Asian culture.
The YKCC has an office within the United Asia Learning Resource Center and an Activities Room underneath the Oak Room Dining Area. The Activities Room is mostly used by the YKCC and the various Asian student organizations for meetings and events. The YKCC presents many activities throughout the school year and coordinates the annual Asian Awareness Month in April.
One of the recent successes of the Center is its continued participation with 5 PAN (Pan Asian Network), a Five College initiative. This newly founded Five College group has produced three Leadership Conferences (spring 2007, fall 2007, spring2008). In all of these endeavors, the YKCC has been heavily involved in all aspects of making these events well organized and comprehensive.
The YKCC encourages all students interested in the people and cultures of Asia to become involved in its activities.
Hours:
YKCC Office: Monday-Friday, 9:00-5:00 PM
Activity Room: Sunday, 5:00-8:00 PM
Closed during the summer and Wintersession
Location:
YKCC Office - Knowlton Hall, Lower Level, Northeast Residential Area
Activity Room – Under Oak Room, Worcester Dining Commons, Northeast Residential Area
|Detail Map|
Phone: 413-577-4240
E-mail: YKCC.umass@gmail.com
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