Courtesy of MENACC

In October 2024, after years of advocacy, Yale opened the doors to the Middle Eastern and North African Cultural Community suite, a space students had long fought to create.

The year before, then-University President Peter Salovey promised a “more plentiful and fully dedicated space” for Middle Eastern and North African students in an email which outlined a series of actions that Yale would take to address antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus amid the Israel-Hamas war. The announcement came after years of student advocacy for a dedicated space for Middle Eastern and North African students.

But for many involved in that effort, the work is far from over: students hope that the dedicated suite on campus will develop into a fully-resourced, permanent MENA cultural center to match other cultural centers on campus.

“This movement was never about waiting for permission,” Shady Qubaty ’20, a co-founder of the MENA Students Association, wrote in an email to the News. “It was about demanding recognition, about saying unapologetically: we are here, we belong, and we will not be sidelined into the margins of other people’s categories.”

Qubaty, who returned to campus in November for an event called Advancing the Yale MENA Legacy, reflected on how the journey from “a borrowed room to a recognized space” came through “relentless, principled, collective pressure.” His advice to current students is clear: “Do not give up in the face of anything. Push until it’s real.”

In a LinkedIn post reflecting on the event, Youssef Ibrahim ’25 wrote about his work as president of the MENA Students Association, vice president of the Arab Students Association and a policy director in the Yale College Council.

He wrote that the push for a dedicated MENA space required “lobbying the administration to amplify the voices of a community that represents 7-9 [percent] of Yale’s campus.”

He also outlined three core goals that continue to drive the movement: building a resilient institutional memory, celebrating meaningful wins and preparing for the next target — “a fully-fledged MENA Cultural Center.”

Inside the suite itself — which includes a kitchen and pantry — the focus has turned to programming.

Lena Ginawi, the assistant director of the MENA cultural community, emphasized that the space is still in its earliest stages. 

“Given how new this space is, I would frame the conversation less around how it has ‘evolved’ and more around how it is beginning to take shape after years of advocacy,” she wrote in an email to the News.

While Ginawi declined to comment on future expansion plans, she said the current suite’s existence is both a physical affirmation and a beginning for Middle Eastern and North African students — a sign that greater belonging can come through organizing, storytelling and sustained visibility.

The Middle Eastern and North African Cultural Community is located on the first floor of 305 Crown St.