Berquam said the center shows officials are not just paying “lip service” to students’ concerns.

“Our students want action, and this is a tangible example of the campus’ and the chancellor’s commitment to a more welcoming campus climate,” she said.

Kevin Hicks, a graduate student in the school of education, called the center “a positive first step.”

But Hicks, who along with a UW staff member and several other students toured black cultural centers at college campuses around the Midwest to get ideas for the UW-Madison site, said what makes centers successful is a commitment of money and staff from the university.

The space that will open next year is only a temporary home for UW’s Black Cultural Center; Berquam said officials will figure out its permanent home during a study of space in the Red Gym later in 2017.

Hicks said he wants UW-Madison to make a long-term commitment to staffing and supporting the center, so that “three years from now we’re not having the same conversation.”

“We didn’t want this to be a temporary solution,” he said.

For now, Berquam said, costs to operate the center will be “minimal” because it will require only some new furniture and rely on existing staff. The space study will give officials a better sense of how much the permanent center will cost in the coming years, she said.

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