After over two years of discussion, a room in West Hall will be opened within the next few weeks as a community space for Southwest Asian and North African students to study and socialize.
“It’s definitely going to provide a physical space for people to come together, be in community [and] feel safe; … just to hang out, play games and … study,” Co-President of the Arab Student Association Petra Tannous said. “It’s hard to put that together when you don’t have a dedicated area to do so.”
The process for creating this space began during Tannous’ first year at Tufts. The ASA executive board wrote a resolution to the Tufts Community Union Senate asking for a SWANA-specific cultural center. Although the plan passed through the Senate, it did not come to fruition, so the ASA pivoted to lobbying for TCU Senate representation.
“[We said] ‘Let’s write a resolution to get a Community Senator in the meantime,’ because we need someone to represent our community on [the] TCU [Senate],” Tannous said. The ASA partnered with the Black Senate Caucus to gain support to pass the resolution last fall, enabling new SWANA student representation on the TCU Senate.
However, SWANA community members continued to push for a physical space for SWANA students to meet. Current SWANA Community Senator Iman Boulouah spoke about the importance of shared space.
“We were really just trying to find a space where we can connect with people that are in our community,” Boulouah said. “So far we’ve only been able to flip-flop between the Africana Center, the Asian-American Center and the Women’s Center. … At the end of the day, we would appreciate having our own space instead of always having to ask. It would be more comfortable to feel that we belong at Tufts, that there is a space for us,” Boulouah said.
The TCU Senate approved the resolution for a SWANA community space on March 5, 2023, but logistics, planning and communication delays between the administration and students stunted progress.
Finding space was the primary difficulty during the administration’s work to provide the SWANA community with its own lounge. Monroe France, vice provost for Institutional Inclusive Excellence, worked closely with students on the administrative side of the project and echoed these difficulties.
“We are tapped out on space at Tufts,” France said. “That’s not uncommon across the university right now.”
The lounge that the SWANA space will occupy in West Hall is on a year-long loan from the Graduate Students’ Association, which will use other rooms in the hall to meet and hold events.
“This academic year we’ll evaluate the usage [of the space] and the Graduate Student Association and what they feel like their needs are,” France explained.
France and Boulouah both expressed hope that the space would be open within the next two weeks, but some arrangements still need to be made before students can begin using it. Repairing a door, painting walls and acquiring furniture are planned actions, while rules are also being made for the space.
“[The Administration is] working on putting together a draft of community guidelines for the space, and then also figuring out a time for the space to be open,” Boulouah said.
A main issue with West Hall as the host for a community space is the fact that it is a dormitory — meaning that students must scan in with their keycards. The Administration has been working closely with students from the ASA to get a list of names of students who have expressed interest in using the SWANA community lounge so that they can be given access via their keycards.
“We need to make sure that it’s safe for everyone and we can verify all their identities,” Boulouah said. “We need to reach out to students who are involved with clubs like the Persian Student Association and the [ASA].”
France reiterated that the SWANA space will not resemble an identity center like the Asian American Center.
“What we’re providing right now at this time … [is] a space that is on loan to use from the Graduate Student Association as a temporary lounge space, not a center,” France said. “It is not a step in the direction of a center from the administration side at this point; it is meant to be a small community space for the students who have some connectedness to the MENA/SWANA communities, a space for them to come together in community, to have small meetings, to like be in community with each other, to maybe share a small study space. … It’s not intended to be a programmatic space.”
The SWANA community includes the ASA, the Muslim Students’ Association and the Persian Students’ Association, all of which had representatives present during the preliminary discussions. Given the scope of the SWANA community, Tannous emphasized that the community space in West Hall is only the beginning of helping SWANA students feel that they have a specific place to celebrate their identities and cultures.
“We are very grateful that we’re getting a space, no matter what it is,” Tannous said. “But in the long term, we definitely would like a center, and we’ll keep working towards that.”
