Samad Hakani, Photography Editor

In February, the YCC passed a proposal that advocates for the creation of a Middle East and North Africa, or MENA, cultural center.

In 2024, Yale officially recognized MENA as a separate racial category and unveiled the newly renovated MENA Cultural Suite, currently located at 305 Crown St. 

The proposal was written by Davenport senator Joseph Elsayyid ’26 and co-sponsored by six other senators. Elsayyid believes that, while cultural suite is a progressive step toward the institutions recognizing the history and culture of the MENA community, “it remains an incomplete measure.”

“The [space] does not hold the same status as other cultural houses on campus,” Elsayyid wrote. “Additionally, the transition from temporary spaces within the AACC in 2022 to the MENA Suite highlights the community’s ongoing struggle for institutional permanence.”

Elsayyid wrote that, due to current ongoing socio-political challenges faced by members of the community, now more than ever it is important for an official space to exist where MENA students and faculty can celebrate their heritage, host educational events and mixers and collaborate with other cultural centers.

The suite is currently comprised of a kitchen space with tables and couches, a food pantry and an open lounge for meetings, socials and studying.

The proposal later detailed the results of a 2023 YCC Fall Survey, where two-thirds of respondents “agree that there should be a MENA cultural center on campus.”

“This is to reaffirm [the YCC’s] push for a house that has the same privileges, the same status as the other cultural houses,” Elsayyid said. “And we’ve spoken that this is on the ten-year plan for Dean Lewis, and that affirmation is our way of saying, ‘Keep on pushing for this issue to be on their ten-year plan.’”

According to Vice President Esha Garg ’26, Yale’s ten-year plan consists of a series of strategic initiatives and goals the Yale administration hopes to uphold within the next decade.

The first phase entails the reconstruction of buildings on Hillhouse Avenue and then later the Divinity School. Only after this phase can construction and consideration of the creation of a MENA suite begin.

“The ten-year plan is not really a fixed date, but the first part of it is rearranging Hillhouse, and once all of that is done, [Yale administration] expects to go back and do cultural centers,” Garg said. “They plan on moving MENA to an actual house at that point and changing where MENA currently is into a student center space.”

Dean of Yale College Pericles Lewis said that the Yale administration is “very excited” to support the MENA cultural community with the suite’s existence. However, he said he is hesitant to go forward with the creation of a cultural center without seeing how the suite develops and grows in the coming years.

“[The suite] could evolve further in the future, but we have to see what usage is and how much demand there is, and whether there are demands for other areas as well, to balance all of that.”

Lewis went on to say that Yale administration plans on increasing staffing and student engagement in the cultural centers. However, in terms of funding, he said that the budget for student engagement and cultural center related programming is “a little tight right now” and that he is “not sure that it’ll be growing anytime soon.”

There are currently 17 staff members at the MENA Cultural Suite.