“It was natural for us to work together, and that’s how the idea of the campus community centers really got started, because we could see the intersections and the way that the communities work together or were pitted against each other or people were trying to make them not work together.”
“So the Cross Cultural Center, Women’s Center, LGBT Resource Center, and then our new centers, sister centers and programs, grew up the same time the campus grew up around equity and diversity.”
“Almost every other Center program I’ve talked with… all of their departments and activism work didn’t start through like an institutional committee saying, “We should start this.” It’s literally around someone naming a need and then fighting (for) it.”
Edwina Welch (she/her) served as the inaugural director of the Cross Cultural Center at UC San Diego, retiring in 2021 after 25 years at the CCC. She reflects on the early days of the Cross, the growth of campus community centers, and student activism across the decades. In particular, this interview covers campus climate from 1995 to the late 2010s, highlighting the Student Affirmative Action Committee (SAAC), Black Winter, and the challenges and developments of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at UC San Diego.
The interview was conducted on May 28, 2021 via Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic by Fran Bautista (they/she), a fourth year undergraduate double majoring in Global Health and Critical Gender Studies and minors in Human Rights and Migration Studies and Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies.
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