A ribbon was cut at Germanna Community College's Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania Wednesday, not for a new building, or for a wing, but for a single airy room with sunlight pouring in through large windows, illuminating a wall painted robin's egg blue—a shade that screams optimism.
The room is located on the third floor—the top one-- of the college's Dickinson Building, and if you happen to look up at the building at night, it's the one with a window that forms the glowing tip of an arrow pointing ever upward. It's not a big space, but the symbolism, and the message it sends, couldn't be bigger. It's about upward mobility, about possibilities without limits.
On Wednesday it was dedicated as Germanna's first Multicultural Center.
Dr. Keyanna Hawkins, GCC's Director of Equity Advancement, said "The purpose of this center, the first thing you see when you drive up, is that it's the hub, where we connect, where we have conversations. where we grow together."
Dr. Tiffany Ray-Patterson, Vice President of Student Services and Chief Diversity Officer, said the Multicultural Center is a physical manifestation of Germanna's years-long effort to continue to make tangible the commitments made in the college's Truth & Reconciliation Plan. "We look forward to this being a space for open dialogue and civil discourse and student-focused services and programming,” she said.
The Truth and Reconciliation Plan, put into effect by Germanna President Janet Gullickson several years ago, stresses that the college must be “an institution where people of all identities, backgrounds and perspectives feel welcome.”
"It's a place, but also an attitude," Dr. Gullickson said about the new Multicultural Center.
"Does anyone feel they aren't welcome here?" she asked, referring to the space's welcoming, uplifting ambiance, adding that she hopes students take the feeling of belonging, of being embraced, of being a part of something bigger, with them wherever they go.