As the Third World Center embarks on the year of its 30th anniversary, its members hope to use the milestone to reconcile two seemingly contradictory goals — adapting to a changing campus while returning to the center's roots.
Standing in the way, however, are what some might call an identity crisis, a controversial history and the presence of a new, bigger student center.
Overcoming these obstacles will require the TWC to rediscover its purpose on campus, members said. "We are trying to redefine our mission in the face of the changing global society," TWC director Heddye Ducree said. "As we see new students come in with new issues and concerns, we cannot be stagnant."
Some of the TWC's goals are changing to reflect the new times. While they still seek to increase the center's presence in the minority community, TWC governance board members said they want to make the center a place for everybody — not just minority students.
"We want to make the TWC more accessible for students not of color to learn about students of color, and to keep the bond between them," said board chair Andria Boateng '02. "This is a place where we can all learn about each other."
In the coming years, the TWC must also take a more proactive role, Ducree said. "Historically there's been a hesitancy to talk about real issues on campus, for whatever the reasons are. We need to go more beyond this political correctness and really make changes on campus and the world," she explained.
But before it can attack problems outside its building at 86 Olden St., the TWC must overcome those inside its own walls.
Debating the name
Four years ago, former Dean of Student Life Janina Montero formed a committee to discuss changing the TWC's controversial name. After months of deliberation, however, the committee — comprising students, faculty and alumni — voted to keep the name.
"The name TWC is obviously symbolic to the will of the original students who founded it for the people of the Third World," said Ashley Adams '02, TWC's May 4th political chair — a position named for a demonstration that occurred at Princeton on May 4, 1976.
"Some people, however, might find it offensive since the [phrase] 'Third World' has been assigned a derogatory connotation," she said.
Today, with Montero and all the students who participated in the committee no longer at the University, the name issue remains unresolved and will be reexamined during an open forum in November.
"Some people say we should change it to something much more celebratory, but I personally don't feel there is anything wrong with it now," Adams said.
When Montero's committee brainstormed for possible new names, it could not arrive at a consensus, Ducree noted. It rejected the name "multi-cultural center," and objected to naming the center after either a famous person or a Princeton alumnus or alumna.
"They felt it was unfair to some," Ducree said, explaining that naming the center after a popular African American, for example, would alienate other ethnicities.
For the students who are offended by the name, board cultural chair Mia Powell '03 suggested they familiarize themselves with the center's contribution to the community instead.
"They should consider the function of the TWC as opposed to the name," Powell said. "What the TWC is there for is way more important than the name."
A tumultuous past
While the naming of the center was a University decision, the founding of the center came after a series of racially charged events and student protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
"These were persons who felt a sense of unrest about the inequities and took a stand," Ducree said of the participants in the protests.
In 1969, for example, a black student asked a group of white students to lower the noise level in their room. One of the white students then urinated on the black student's head, and the black student and his friends retaliated by returning to the room and confronting the white students. A fight between the groups ensued.
Soon after, the University administration announced a proposal to cut the financial aid program, which would limit the number of new students from families with an income of $7,500 or less to 10 percent of the student body. In addition, the proposal mandated that 60 percent of these new students not receive any financial aid.
In protest, a group of minority students formed the Third World Coalition and organized a sit-in in the Firestone library reference room March 12, 1971.
The sit-in proved to be effective. Six months later, the University scrapped the unpopular proposal and announced the conversion of the Osborne Field House — a former dining hall for the football team — into the "Third World Center," a space for the students the Third World Coalition represented.
Thirty years later, the TWC confronts a new challenge with the opening of another University facility, the Frist Campus Center. Though they were asked to relocate into Frist, TWC members refused — risking the prospect of becoming obsolete in the face of the new center.
TWC members did not want to give up the center's location on the outskirts of campus because it gave students a "sense of place," Ducree said.
"We chose not to move there. The kind of space we own here is one where students have a sense of ownership," Ducree said. "This place was home for 30 years for students who had no home. It would have been like giving away your home."
After meetings with and appeals to President Shapiro — which Ducree described as a struggle — the University permitted the TWC to remain at its current location.
But with both the Women's and International centers — previously neighbors to the TWC — moving to the new campus center, the TWC now stands alone on the corner of Olden Street and Prospect Avenue.
TWC members, however, denied that the presence of Frist would negatively impact the center.
"Actually more people are using the TWC as a place to congregate than in the past," Powell said. "With Frist being closer than Chancellor Green was, I don't think it will take away from the TWC. If anything, it will draw more students to the TWC."
Adams noted that Frist's opening actually has shifted the center of campus closer to the TWC. In addition, its location nearer to the Princeton community complements the purpose of the center, she said.
And these challenges themselves may prove to foster a renewed vitality at the center. "We've come a long way and we're just about midway," Ducree said. "We still have a lot of work to do."
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