Luke Palmisano/THE POST Ron Williams screws in braces at the new cultural center located in Lindley Hall yesterday afternoon. The center will act as a multicultural student union and is expected to be completed Winter Quarter. Williams is an employee of Williams and Sons Construction Company.

After a year of planning and anticipation, some Ohio University students will see their hard work finalized when renovations are completed on a new cultural center Winter Quarter, but some have reservations.

Changes are being completed in the current cultural center, the Robert Duncanson Gallery and the meeting rooms adjacent to them. The concern is the amount of space - especially finding a way to break up the current gallery into office and meeting space.

"I think (the renovations are) a waste of aesthetic design," African-American studies professor Francine Childs said. "The gallery was the most eloquent part of the building."

While the center will offer students a computer lab, it will not hold the programs and functions that it should, Childs said.

"If it were bigger," said Childs, "it would better serve the students."

William Smith, director of the Office of Institutional Equity, said the space was allocated for the computer lab because students expressed a significant need for one.

"There has to be a trade off," he said. "That's why a portion of the gallery was allocated to meet the needs of the students."

Smith also said there would be adequate programming, but it will have to be tailored to fit the space, just as it has been in the past. He sees the cultural center as an opportunity to showcase underrepresented cultures in the community through programming and the use of a smaller gallery.

Natalie Barnes, senator of black affairs for Student Senate, looks at the cultural center with optimism.

When it is finished, she said she envisions a center that will be a central location for multicultural organizations across campus with an emphasis on African Americans. It will give students a gallery and computer lab as well as a chance to meet and have educational programs, Barnes said.

"It will be a student union with a multicultural feel," she said. "Kind of like Baker, but on a more intimate level."

The Black Affairs Commission started the idea for the cultural center last fall in Barnes' living room. They have also gained support from the Black Student Union, Office of Institutional Equity and the NAACP.

They received $25,000 in funding from African American Studies. Most of that money is being used for renovations, and little is left this year for programming, she said. For the remainder of the year, they will work on programs throughout the center that will make the community stronger.

"I want it to be social to an extent but with more of an emphasis on education," she said.

Smith also hopes the center will be a "vehicle" for sharing cultural experiences with the entire university community.

"I think it will present a positive opportunity for the university as a community to learn more," he said. "And provide a comfort space for students that will help to fill a void that currently exists."