![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-05-at-4.00.09-PM.png\")
The African American Office of Student Development hosts a Kwanzaa celebration at UC Berkeley\u2019s Multicultural Community Center in 2012. Credit: Reginald James via Flickr<\/p>\nThe African American Office of Student Development hosts a Kwanzaa celebration at UC Berkeley\u2019s Multicultural Community Center in 2012. Credit: Reginald James via Flickr<\/p>\n
UC Berkeley\u2019s Multicultural Community Center, a more than 20-year-old, student-run space with roots in the ethnic studies movement that offers cultural programs and support services, will reopen this spring, Chancellor Rich Lyons said Tuesday in an interview with Berkeleyside.<\/p>\n
The spacious, airy center inside the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union has been closed since last summer<\/a>, with events paused and student interns offering snacks and services like free printing on a nearby outdoor patio during the fall semester.<\/p>\n News of the closure had sparked an outpouring of concern among students and alumni on social media<\/a>, with some sharing that the center had provided a critical safe space for community and grassroots organizing, and a few even saying they would not have graduated from UC Berkeley without the support structure it provided.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just, like, a huge testament to the possibility of community in a big place like Berkeley,\u201d said Jess Reyes, who attended UC Berkeley from 2012 to 2016 and interned at the center. She said the space was especially important for first-generation college students like her who sometimes struggled to find their place at the university.<\/p>\n UC Berkeley had shared little information about the reasons for the closure, leading to speculation among some students and staff that it was connected to ongoing federal investigations into whether the university was adequately combating antisemitism on campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n The center\u2019s walls were festooned with pro-Palestinian and anti-imperialist art, alongside rotating exhibits that had included a tribute to the poet June Jordan and one marking the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, said a staff member in the university\u2019s Division of Equity and Inclusion, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to talk to the press. <\/p>\n Prior to closing the center, university administrators had asked student interns to take window signs with political messages that had faced onto Sproul Plaza and turn them inward.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really does feel like they are acquiescing to the Trump administration,\u201d the staff member said about the closure. \u201cI worry we\u2019re losing that focus on the students that are most at risk.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Speaking with Berkeleyside on Tuesday, Lyons gave more detail about the university\u2019s reasoning. He said some students had complained that they felt unwelcome in the center.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBerkeley, like any public institution, we need to be welcoming in all of our spaces,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we were hearing from some people, some groups, that it\u2019s not even that I felt unwelcome in that space, but some felt threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the complaints involved images and messages posted on the walls that included but were not limited to a sign saying \u201cFree Palestine.\u201d He described some of the political signs previously hung at the center as \u201cvery aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n Lyons said the university\u2019s Interim Vice Chancellor of Equity and Inclusion, Fabrizio Mejia, was leading the revamp in consultation with students and staff. Speaking on behalf of Mejia, university spokesperson Dan Mogulof declined to give details about changes to the center, but said those discussions were underway.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to do our very best to do the right thing for our community writ large, and I think we can land in a place where people with all kinds of views on all different issues will say \u2018I now feel welcome,\u2019\u201d Lyons said. \u201cWe have to reopen the Multicultural Community Center and we felt like we have to make it more welcoming, not less.\u201d<\/p>\n While the chancellor did not give a specific date for the reopening, a post on the center\u2019s Instagram page invited community members to a \u201cPeople\u2019s Potluck\u201d<\/a> at the center on Feb. 13. Week of Cultural Resistance<\/a>, an annual event combining music and dance performances, speakers and art workshops, will also return this year, according to another post.\u00a0<\/p>\n Berkeleyside partners with the nonprofit newsroom\u00a0Open Campus<\/a>\u00a0on higher education coverage.<\/p>\n “*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n \t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AP17111706179059.jpg\")
Students walk past the Martin Luther King Jr Student Union at the University of California at Berkeley. Credit: AP\/Ben Margot<\/p>\n