By Stacey Goldberg ’12

Photo Courtesy of Jiselle Piralta ’13

In a ribbon-cutting ceremony last Thursday, the door to the office for the Association of Black Collegians (ABC) in 102 Farinon was open wide and passerby invited to walk in. Specifically, the invitation was extended to the roughly 40 members of the Hispanic Society of Lafayette (HSL). And, figuratively speaking, they’re keeping the door open indefinitely.

The ceremony was to mark the merge of the ABC office with HSL, who previously did not have an official office on campus.

“We’ve always been historically interactive [with ABC] which is why it was a good idea to merge the two into one office,” current HSLPresident Jiselle Peralta ’13 said.

ABC advisor and Dean of Intercultural Development John McKnight agreed. “I think that the membership of both organizations began to realize over time that there were some shared goals and interests and that it only makes sense to share their resources,” he said.

In the past, HSL held most of their board meetings in Pardee and their group meetings in either the Limburg Theater or their house on McCartney Street.

“The house is in somewhat bad condition and is not big enough for our body meetings” said current HSL Secretary and future HSL President Edgar Gonzalez ’14. Though HSL will be getting a house in the new Living Learning Community on Monroe Street next year, Gonzalez sees the merge of the Farinon office as an opportunity to highlight diversity on campus.

“I’ve noticed that whenever students take tours here… they usually come to Farinon and are usually introduced to ABC, Landis, but I don’t think there’s a dimension of HSL,” he said. “If we just mention ABC and not mention other groups on campus, I don’t think that shows a lot of diversity, so having HSL and ABC together, I think it will show awareness that the Hispanic community here at Lafayette is actually somewhat strong.”

According to President Weiss’s recent speech at the Future of Liberal Arts Conference convention earlier this week, within 10 years non-white minorities will comprise more than half of all children in the United States. By 2050, the Hispanic population is projected to rise from 15 to 30 percent of the US population, whereas the Black population is projected to increase only slightly from 14 to 15 percent.

Though the two organizations will be sharing a room, they will continue to operate independently. “We’re trying to make it the most colorful and interactive office in Farinon. That’s the goal,” said current ABC president Robert Young ’13.

When Farinon was built, the special interest rooms on the four sides of the entrance ways were designed to host organizations that were considered “umbrella groups,” said Director of Student Life Programs Pam Brewer. Umbrella groups are “representative of as much as possible of the student body in its entirety,” she said. The students came up with the idea to merge rooms over the summer and Brewer said she was “all for it.”

This is not the first merge that these student organization offices have seen. According to Brewer, in the past, QuESThad requested to merge offices with ALF in 124 Farinon.

Physically, the only updates that were required for the merge in room 102 were removing various items from surplus storage – an old computer and a filing cabinet – and giving the room a fresh coat of paint.