Neal-Marshall is important for all

Every member of the Bloomington campus community should celebrate the opening of the new Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center for two reasons: It's a magnificent building, inspiring just to walk through; its completion marks a watershed moment in the history of IU.\nThat such an extraordinary building, sure to be much noticed in the national community of universities, is the home of the Black Culture Center says something powerful about the strength of IU's commitment. \nI believe that equity and excellence are two concepts that cannot be separated. In the 21st century, we need a culture center that celebrates, documents and lives the values of a society whose future belongs to all of its citizens. Great universities, most of which have long been the exclusive domains of the privileged classes, are changing, and in the opening of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, IU is leading the way. \nA great American university of the 21st century will have a first-rate faculty, a staff who cares deeply about students and a student body of eager and open-minded learners. Such a student body must not only be diverse demographically. It must also be diverse in spirit. It must include the kinds of students who understand that a black culture center is a home away from home not just for black students, but for all students. \nFormer IU President Herman B Wells said Indiana's faculty, students and staff deserved to have the world's best in art available at the center of our own campus. Thus, in the 1940s, emerged the Auditorium, Showalter Fountain, Lilly Library and School of Fine Arts. Wells' vision of an arts plaza and his early embracing of a racially integrated campus were not separate. They formed the idea of an IU that could aspire to greatness and leadership in a way that had not occurred to many people before then.\nAnd it worked: Marian Anderson soon became not only the most famous person to sing at the IU Auditorium but also the first black person to perform there, as well as to stay overnight at the Indiana Memorial Union.\nSince then, there have been both trying times as well as good times for blacks at IU. This campus was the home of the first black student body president in the Big Ten -- Thomas Atkins in 1960-61. Afro-American Studies began in 1970, and the first, very small Black Culture Center in the same era. But the dream of a high-quality, unified space for all of the growing efforts of the black students and faculty on campus was one deferred in favor of other priorities for a long time. \nThe center opens this week with a dedication ceremony, a performance by the great activist-actor couple Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee and an exhibition that documents the black experience at IU since the University's beginning. \nJust as all students should make sure not to graduate without visiting the Art Museum, the Lilly Library and the Musical Arts Center, that can now be said about the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center. It is a beautiful space that is inspiring by itself, but as one learns and understands what takes place within its walls, one can understand the real importance of this new center and of the work we all have yet to do in making a better campus and a better world. Today we celebrate together; tomorrow we move on to bigger dreams and a bolder future for IU and the state.