New GIC director Valerie De Cruz sets eyes on future

After a three-year transition period without a permanent leader, the Greenfield Intercultural Center is undergoing major external and internal changes under the leadership of its newly appointed director, Valerie De Cruz. Serving as a cultural resource center, the GIC aims to stimulate intergroup discussion and promote the needs of minority groups. It houses 13 undergraduate groups, the office of the United Minority Counsel and the Programs for Awareness in Cultural Education. With the support of University President Judith Rodin, the GIC received more than $35,000 this year to upgrade its facilities and programs, according to Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum. The center is currently undergoing extensive renovations -- including painting, plumbing, recarpeting and mending fences -- to better accommodate students. The GIC was also wired for ethernet last March. "It is my understanding that it has been some years since the center received this kind of attention," De Cruz said. In addition to initiating physical changes, De Cruz hopes to strengthen the GIC's programs through collaboration with other campus groups. While the center previously functioned primarily as a separate community, De Cruz said she hopes such interaction will bring new perspectives to ongoing discussions. "We want to capitalize on what makes the GIC unique, that is, it is a space where different groups come together," she said. "It is my hope that we can use that as a foundation to build wider and more inclusive collaborations with other groups and constituencies on campus." For example, the GIC and the Program for Student-Community Involvement plan to work together to identify community service projects enabling both programs to reach out to different minority communities in Philadelphia. The center also plans to work with the staff at Hillel to coordinate ongoing dialogue between the minority community and Jews at Penn. And De Cruz is working with the Women's Center to lead a workshop on feminism in third-world countries. Formerly assistant dean for minority affairs at Princeton University, De Cruz was appointed to head the GIC last March. GIC's Graduate Program Coordinator for Asian Pacific American Communities Sara Cho, a first-year Folklore graduate student, said De Cruz was responsible for most of the GIC's improvements over the past six months. "She's all about GIC," Cho said. "She goes beyond her commitments to the GIC to build relationships with various groups on campus, like the Asian American Studies Department, Office of Affirmative Action and African American Resource Center to raise awareness on cultural diversity on campus." United Minority Council Chairperson Temitope Koledoye said the Center will continue to improve under De Cruz's leadership. "Valerie's going to do a lot for the GIC, in terms of initiating improvements, providing support for the UMC and helping us in other areas," the College senior said. "There's a sense of leadership in the Center that we haven't had in the past." A highly attended open house at the Center last Friday may have been the first sign of the Center's rapidly increasing influence. De Cruz said the open house -- which attracted approximately 70 students and staff -- served as a reminder that promoting diversity on the campus could be a simple as providing the space and the opportunity for people of different backgrounds to interact.