Multicultural
Center: What Does It Mean?
In 1978, two undergraduate students attending Boston College
approached Dr. Donald Brown, the Director of Minority Student
Programs at Boston College, and expressed their concerns about
being labeled as "minorities." These students argued that
"minority" was an offensive and unacceptable term when applied to
people of color. Dr. Brown developed the AHANA acronym to
eliminate the negative connotations that are associated with the
term "minority."
AHANA stands for African American, Hispanic American, Asian
American, and Native American. As Dr. Brown states, "AHANA is not
a degrading, inaccurate or stereotypical term. It is a term that
is creative, unique and symbolic of pride. It was not developed to
segregate its members from the remainder of the [University]
community. It was developed to unite its members for the greater
good of all, to inspire cultural awareness, and destroy the void
among students of different racial backgrounds." Dr. Brown
presented the acronym and the feelings of the students to the
Board of Trustees. Like the student population at Boston College,
the Board of Trustees warmly accepted the new term and encouraged
its use.
In keeping with the changing trend, The University of Maine
began successfully experimenting with this acronym a few years
ago. At UMaine the term AHANA has been altered to Multicultural
Center. All aspects of the term remain the same with the exception
of the change from Hispanic to Latino/a thus replacing the "H"
with an "L" in the acronym. This change resulted from the fact
that many people consider themselves Latino/a rather than
Hispanic.
Currently, there are more than 30 colleges and universities
using some form of the acronym on their campus. At UMaine, we
continue to test the acronym for its uses and purposes on our
campus.
Article taken from Multicultural Programs', "The Cultural Times
Bulletin", November 1997. Author: Anthony Altieri '99, Former
Graduate Assistant. Research gathered from Black Issues in Higher
Education, Article by Dr. Donald Brown, April 1989.
History and Alumni
"When you are willing to make sacrifices for a
great cause, you will never be alone." -Coretta
Scott King (1927-2006)
By providing quality services and programs, from personal, to
academic, to social, cultural and ethnic, we are committed to
ensuring that your educational experience at the university will
be a positive and productive one. I encourage students to make the
time to connect with and take pride in the programs and services
designed to encourage, support and empower students of color to
succeed.
Programs
