{"id":1795,"date":"2019-10-10T14:16:47","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T18:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/thurman\/?p=1795"},"modified":"2020-11-10T16:46:45","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T21:46:45","slug":"about-us-howard-thurman-center-moving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/thurman\/about-us-howard-thurman-center-moving\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground Moving?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the first post in our new “About Us” series, which aims to answer our frequently asked questions and provide more context about our mission at Boston University.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Why is the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground moving to 808 Comm Ave?<\/b><\/p>\n

Great question! And, one we get a lot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

First, a little context:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

In 2015, college campuses across the\u00a0<\/span>country saw a rise in studen<\/span>t activism related to ra<\/span>ce.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Around that time, we at BU started meeting with our students to get a sense of how this national experience was playing out on our campus. We learned that what students want, and what students <\/span>need<\/span><\/i>, is the space and resources on campus to have conversations related to race, identity, culture, and belonging.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, this move is a response to the events of 2015?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Not <\/span>exactly<\/span><\/i>. The following year\u2019s presidential election brought these topics even more to the forefront. And, the US has another presidential election in (as of this writing) 390 days. We\u2019re already seeing questions of belonging and <\/span>who gets to belong<\/span><\/i> play out in this campaign cycle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But, our move isn\u2019t just a response to recent or future elections either. Our move is really about day 391 and beyond. It\u2019s about the future of conversations about race, identity, culture, and belonging – the future of Common Ground – at Boston University.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What does that mean,<\/b> really<\/i><\/b>?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground was founded to celebrate and continue the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, who believed:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c…that meaningful and creative shared experiences between people can be more compelling than all of the faiths, fears, concepts, ideologies, and prejudices that divide; and if these experiences can be multiplied and sustained over a sufficient duration of time, then any barrier that separates one person from another can be undermined and eliminated.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Since 1986, the HTC has provided students with space to connect and debate, room to grow and change perspectives, and the tools to build community on campus and beyond.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Moving to 808 Comm Ave allows us to serve this mission and the volume of need on campus even more fully, increasing our physical space from 4,000 square feet to nearly 20,000 square feet. Additionally, we\u2019ve increased the size of our team from three professional staff members to seven. Our weekly selection of programs will also expand in 808. In fact, next semester nearly a dozen classes whose topics relate to our mission of Common Ground will take place in the Howard Thurman Center. We also look forward to collaborating with schools and colleges across campus, like CFA, COM, and MET\u2019s Gastronomy program, in addition to WBUR, the Mayor of Boston\u2019s office, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

When can we visit?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

January 2020! We look forward to welcoming you during our Grand Opening <\/span>week<\/span><\/i> starting Monday, January 20, 2020 with our annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration.\u00a0<\/span>We\u2019ll be sure to share the full schedule of events as soon as we can. In the meantime, you can continue to visit us at our current space on the Lower Level of the GSU.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Check out this <\/span>time-lapse video<\/span><\/a> of the ongoing construction, and follow along for the latest updates on our <\/span>Instagram<\/span><\/a> or in our <\/span>weekly newsletter<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the first post in our new “About Us” series, which aims to answer our frequently asked questions and provide more context about our mission at Boston University.\u00a0 Why is the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground moving to 808 Comm Ave? Great question! And, one we get a lot.\u00a0 First, a little context:\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6091,"featured_media":1657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/thurman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/thurman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/thurman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/thurman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6091"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/thurman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1795"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/thurman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3126,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/thurman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795\/revisions\/3126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/thurman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/thurman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/thurman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/thurman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}