Multicultural Learning Community (MLC)

Witte Residence Hall | 56 residents (all double rooms; coed mixed floor)
Sponsored by the School of Education; Wisconsin School of Business | $200 learning community fee (exception request form)

On a large campus, the MLC will be your home away from home. The community is designed to help you personally and academically succeed as a Badger by connecting residents to campus and academic resources. Through group discussions on multiculturalism, diversity, social justice, and exploration of your identity, you’ll gain an expanded worldview, thus creating a safe, welcoming, and fun living space for all. All residents have a voice to express programming ideas, have opportunity to discuss issues on campus or around the world, and discuss personal and academic related topics. Importantly you will learn how to navigate tough conversations and bring them into the larger community. Furthermore, you will see many previous MLC residents who are significant student campus leaders on discussions on diversity and rights for all people. You’ll be welcomed in MLC with culturally sensitive and passionate working faculty and staff dedicated to your growth and success. Through a diverse set of social and academic activities focused around multiculturalism, identity, and social justice, you will take away a deep network of knowledge, family, and friends for a lifetime.

Program Goals:

Create a safer space for a diverse group of students to come together, create a community and support one another in their academic and personal growth
Foster increased understandings of one’s own and others’ beliefs, ideas, identities, behaviors, and understandings of social issues
Facilitate all residents’ success on and off campus
Examine the dynamics of current power structures and how life experiences are shaped by factors at the individual, societal, institutional and structure levels
Develop an understanding of social justice and the skills to become an engaged community member

My favorite part about MLC is the familial relationships we have developed so quickly. Here, everyone has the opportunity to join in conversation, activities, or simply getting a meal together. So far my experience has forced me to expand my perspective and realize that we are all very similar people.
Aris Liuzzi, MLC Resident

Seminar

“Multiculturalism and Social Justice” (Afro Am 271) | 3 Credits

“Multiculturalism and Social Justice” (Afro Am 271) is a three-credit course that investigates multiculturalism, the intersectionality of systems of oppression, and social justice in individual, societal, institutional and structural spaces. Here you will learn about yourself, those around you and your connection to the United States and world. The goals of the course is to facilitate students’ academic growth and critical examination of: (1) their own and others’ beliefs and identities; (2) the intersections of identities and systems of oppression; (3) the dynamics of relations to power and privilege; and (4) their own ability to identify, engage, or plan actions that challenge inequalities and injustice. This course seeks to provide an engaging space for students to discuss issues of race/racism, white supremacy, classism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. among others living in their learning community and in a way that seeks to center all students’ experiences and knowledge. In recognition of students’ diverse academic interests and commitments, this course fulfills the ethnic studies requirement! Many MLC residents say that the seminar was one of the best learning experiences they have had and that it helped shape their future academic goals and understandings.

Programs and Activities

MLC holds a number of events that add to its enriching floor setting. We kick off the semester with the MLC convocation where residents are invited to a celebration and presentation led by our faculty advisor, Dr. Carl Grant. This is followed by a semester full of exciting activities, including, and not limited to, a service project, community conversations, and a retreat discussing the social justice themes of the year, setting the stage for our community. Throughout the semester, we have popular bi-weekly “bittersweet” controversial conversations where students discuss current events and topics of all areas that affect them, their community, the campus, and the world at large. The Social Justice Speaker Series is another popular event, where accomplished local and regional speakers come in to talk about their experiences in fields of politics, education, community organizing, the arts, and social justice advocacy. As a break from the rhythm of the semester, the MLC also hosts “Cultural Dinners,” a community meal where students have the opportunity to share a dish special to their family and/or culture and other fun events organized by MLC residents, such as service projects and social events. MLC residents are encouraged and supported in the planning of their own events and activities, which offers our residents a unique opportunity to grow as leaders and create a community based on their own goals and visions.