The Multicultural Student Center (MSC) was formed in 1988 as a result of a long process of advocacy and organizing by students, faculty, and administrators of color on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. This process was given voice in the recommendations of the "Final Report of the Steering Committee for Minority Affairs" colloquially known as the Holley Report. The report itself reflects on the continuing "feelings of alienation and isolation felt by large sections of the minority population of the UW-Madison" which persist "in spite of extensive alterations now underway in the demography of the country."
The Multicultural Student Center was formed with the principal mission to support the academic life of students of color, provide a cultural and social meeting point for students of color on campus, and expand the communication and understanding of minority issues to the wider campus community. The MSC has over the years, provided administrative support to a large number of student organizations focused both on the five groups initially designated by the Holley report: African Americans, Native Americans, Chicano/as, Asian Americans, and Puerto Ricans, as well as other cultures and ethnicities represented on campus.
Until 1998, the first ten years of its existence, the Interim Multicultural Student Center was located in Memorial Union. Thereafter it was moved to its present home in the Red Gymnasium (716 Langdon St). At the time of its foundation the Multicultural Student Center was administratively located within the Dean of Students Office, however reorganization between 2002 and 2007 had placed the MSC under the purview of the Associate Vice Chancellor for Identity and Inclusion. The first director of the MSC, Candace McDowell, served for 22 years, retiring in 2010. The majority of documents in this collection related to The MSC specifically originate from her office. In addition, McDowell curated a collection of images for the Digital Collections Center in honor of the MSC's 25th anniversary (2011). This collection contains the originals of those images as well as the more extensive albums from which that collection was drawn.
Several of the organizations which eventually came under the umbrella of the Multicultural Student Center pre-date it, including the Black Student Union, La Collectiva Cultural de Aztlan, and Alianza/Union Puertorriquena, and Wunk Sheek. These organizations continued to operate as registered student organizations and were integrated to varying degrees physically and administratively with the Multicultural Student Center. The Multicultural Student Center supports these organizations through connections to academic advisors, the allocation of physical space at the Center, and funding for on campus events. The documented activities of individual organizations are various but often included on campus social, cultural, or scholarly events, the publication of newsletters, participation in student activism and demonstrations, and travel.
