Dinorah Ortiz and Rayna Patel show off the SSWANA Center’s banner. The EMU opens the South, Southwest Asian, and North African (SSWANA) Center for students and staff with these heritages in room 211 in Eugene, Ore., on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. (Antonio Rodarte Garcia/Emerald)
The South Asian, Southwest Asian and North African Center has found its home in the Erb Memorial Union after the University of Oregon administration was called upon to establish the cultural center.
Last spring, several student cultural organizations delivered a letter to Johnson Hall requesting the establishment of the new center. After a long summer of interviews and paperwork, room 211 is now filled with beautiful rugs, warming teas and a place to build community.
SSWANA’S grand opening celebration is happening on Jan. 15, 2026.
“Our biggest goal is to give anyone within the SSWANA region a place that kind of feels like home. And anyone who wants to learn about the region as well. I think we hope it’s a really immersive space,” SSWANA Center Engagement Fellow Rayna Patel said.
Patel hopes to host henna hours, have ethnic teas and show culturally significant movies in the center.
Another goal of the center is to bring in faculty from the SSWANA region that can mentor UO students and help them feel more connected to the community.
“Having something that you can touch and hold and meet people within I think is really important because there are clubs of course, but there is so much beauty in art and the culture and the languages of the SSWANA region and that needs to be held in a physical space,” Patel said.
The center was formed from a partnership between over a dozen UO clubs but it is not a club itself, instead being held under administrative control through the Multicultural Center and the Division of Student Life.
The SSWANA center is designated as a center and not just a club because people establishing the center are from several different UO clubs. These clubs include the UO Muslim Student Association, UO Arab Student Association and UO South Asian Cultural Alliance.
Dinorah Ortiz-Carté, MCC and SSWANA Center program director, called the SSWANA Center an “extension” of the broader MCC.
The MCC operates nearby in EMU room 109 and provides physical space for more than 25 student unions to meet. A post announcing the new center on Instagram described the SSWANA center as a community space for students and unions to share resources with each other.
SSWANA has collaborated with several groups on campus to host events, including a fall bazaar in collaboration with MSA, ASA and SACA, and an upcoming guest lecture with a Palestinian human rights lawyer hosted in collaboration with the Associated Student of the University of Oregon, ASA and the UO Human Rights Center Coalition.
The SSWANA center currently has four staff positions, including three student associates and one engagement fellow.
“Leading up to this process (we) had already had a conversation about supporting the process of wanting to establish a SSWANA Center, and then eventually that ended up with us (MCC) being the administrative home,” Ortiz-Carté said.
An “administrative home” means that unlike other clubs that are run as ASUO student organization spaces, the SSWANA Center reports to and is funded through the MCC and ultimately through the UO Division of Student Life.
The SSWANA Center was granted the space after interested members applied through a new space allocation program; members then followed up with the EMU Administrative Space Allocation and Review Committee through interviews showing their interest and goals for the space.
Chair of ASpARC Jessi Steward said last spring the committee received several applications from student organizations interested in claiming spaces in the EMU, but many did not fit the application criteria, and it was determined that SSWANA was most suitable for the vacating EMU space.
“SSWANA was certainly one (group) we were really excited to work with and when we had a space available we put the recommendation forward,” Steward said. “They’ll be good stewards of the space — they will be open and have enough funding and staffing to make it a vibrant part of the EMU.”
Before SSWANA moved into room 211, the Men’s Resource Center occupied the room. The MRC is now being housed under University Health Services and is in the process of finding a more permanent home, according to UO Spokesperson Eric Howald.
A pilot program in spring 2025 introduced a system to allocate EMU space to applicants and occupants, including an application and a final decision made by EMU Director Eric Alexander.
ASpARC discusses and votes on how administrative spaces are allocated. EMU spaces open for student organizations funded through ASUO are separate and open for applications on Engage.
Because the SSWANA center is funded through the Division of Student Life, it is considered an administrative space and had to be reviewed and voted on by ASpARC.
SSWANA was informed of its granted space in August, according to Patel.
Steward said the EMU and Division of Student Life will continue to ensure a balance of how spaces in the EMU are allocated.
“Things will change but the mix should always be that dynamic mix where students are served,” Steward said.
Patel said it was exciting that the SSWANA center offered a physical location for members to meet and learn from each other.
