ADPIC seeks staffing for cultural center

Laughter and paper lanterns hung in the hallway outside of Cal Poly Humboldt’s newest cultural center, Asian, Desi, and Pacific Islander Collective Students sat in chairs around the room and played a drawing game on their phones and tablets. ADPIC lead Alyssa Huynh sat at the welcome desk and greeted people as they entered, encouraging them to join in the communal game.

Huynh explained that the group started as a club with weekly meetings. They want to preserve the original community feeling into the cultural center and provide that space to more students.

“We still meet weekly and we do meetings like this,” Huynh said. “So that you can socialize with people.”

Currently ADPIC is all student-run and because of this it is only open on Fridays from 2 – 3 p.m. in Nelson Hall East 215 and 216. They are working to hire permanent staff so that the center can expand its hours.

The center plans on having a grand opening during the “Cultural Centers Open House” which is scheduled to take place Thursday, Sept. 8 from 3 – 5 p.m. on the second floor of Nelson Hall East.

ADPIC hopes to create a cultural safe space for students to share on campus. Graduate student Luis Lara explained his idea for a weekly Asian horror movie night.

He said, “In October we can have movie night-horror movie night- each week, each movie depicting a different type of culture from Asia, you know, Japanese, Korean, Thailand, stuff like that.”

Lara also suggested an idea for a night that combines cooking and karaoke, or as Lara put it, “Cookaoke.”

Lara said he wants ADPIC and the events they put on to reach “people that are home sick, because I know up here there’s not a lot of diversity.”

Sophia Bernardino, social media coordinator for ADPIC, also elaborated on plans to bring more diverse food selections to campus dining facilities.

She said, “I as a student would appreciate if there was more condiments and more Filipino foods instead of just gyozas, and sushi, and like theres teriyaki bowls, although it’s greatly appreciated, I assume students in our center would want more than just that.”

Bernardino plans on bringing up the issue of diversity in food selection to the Dean of Students.

For more information about the “Cultural Centers Open House” contact Umoja Center for Pan African Student Excellence at (707)-826-4588 or umoja@humboldt.edu.

To keep up with ADPIC follow them on Instagram @humboldt.adpic, on Facebook @hsuADPIC.