The Multicultural Center stinks. It smells, too.

Come right inside 1936 Sheridan Road, tucked all the way over there at the social mecca of campus, right in front of Foster-Walker Complex. While Norris takes its sweet time completing space additions (come to Willie’s Too flashy signs and a smoothie with a protein boost should keep you quiet), cultural groups get to spend their days on the first floor and basement of the decrepit Victorian structure with the creaky steps and cracked foundation.

I’m an officer in the Polish-American Student Alliance and use the center often. Now I know we don’t have as much influence or experience as AAAB, Alianza or McSA, but all Polish jokes aside, even I can tell when we’re getting screwed. This is definitely one of those times.

The center isn’t even entirely dedicated to multiculturalism. Academic advising takes up the second floor, and the Sesquicentennial Committee has the third floor for the next year. As for the space we can use — frankly it sucks.

We have the conference room with the kitchen and soda machine (which provided stimulating background music while our guest speaker read post-war Polish poetry last spring), and the front lounge/waiting room by the front desk, the heavy traffic area. Down in the basement, you can discuss issues and activities over the hum of the dehumidifiers that work day and night to get rid of all that excess moisture. Be careful where you step: A soft plop means the carpet hasn’t yet dried from the flooding.

Getting excited yet? Don’t jump for joy too high because you might bump your head on one of the exposed ceiling pipes.

I don’t want to be too harsh, though, because as part of the Multicultural Center Advisory Board, I, along with eight other students, have been working hard this quarter to breathe new life into the place. Ethnic Food Night, held the Friday before the Diversity Conference, was a huge success; we actually ran out of food because so many people came.

What was worse, however, was not being able to physically accommodate everyone in such a cramped space. The basement and first floor were literally packed. Had Evanston fire department showed up, the fire marshal would have arrested us on sight for all the fire safety code violations.

The current center is inadequate. The programming may be great, but the resources and facilities aren’t. The whole campus isn’t active in cultural affairs, but those students that do make their cultural group an important part of their campus lives deserve better. The university has failed to meet their needs.

The current building was meant to be a home, not a cultural meeting center. The university should consider forming a task force to raise money and plan for the construction of a new building. Other schools, such as Penn State, already have full-facility cultural centers. Why shouldn’t one of the top universities in the nation have one, too?

I refuse to sit and organize Polish club events amid the scent of cinnamon-apple potpourri and dampness. What is the administration telling me about how important it thinks my cultural heritage is?

Or does does it consider my group as insignificant as the Polish janitors who demanded fair wages: just another matter of simple economics, right? We can’t profit from the Polish club, why bother going out of the way to accommodate them?