The Barometer Online

Issue date: 10/10/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Cory Reed The Centro Cultural César Chávez opened its doors to the public Thursday, concluding a week of open houses for Oregon State cultural centers.

Students and staff of various cultures and ethnicities gathered at the Centro Cultural César Chávez on Thursday for two hours of socializing with friends and new acquaintances to ring in the new school year.

While most of the cultural center open houses took place earlier this week, the coordinators for the Centro decided the afternoon would be a better time to attract more attendees.

Since there are far more people on campus during the afternoon with classes in session, they were expecting a larger turnout, and were amply prepared with their fruit salad, bread bowls with spinach dip, party punch and variety of flavors of creamy cheesecakes.

Israel Salgado, a freshman in business, was one of the first to show up to the event. The event wasn't a new experience for him, since he spends much of his time at the 4Cs.

"It's where I come to hang out with friends everyday," Salgado said. "We mostly just watch TV and do homework. I'm a freshman, so this is all new to me. I've met a lot of new people here and made friends."

Frannie Kim, a senior in chemical engineering, said that while she's never been to the 4Cs before, she has been partaking in a whirlwind tour of all the cultural center open houses this week in hopes of finding out more about the other cultural groups and ethnicities on campus.

"I've never been to any one but the Asian [Pacific Cultural Center], so I'm going to all the open houses this week," she said. Kim said she would have been interested in visiting the cultural centers earlier in her college career, but wasn't aware that they were open places for people of all ethnicities to congregate.

The push from the cultural centers this week was to invite vast groups of students and staff into their homes on campus. They hope luring students in with free food and cozy settings will prove to be effective and help start the year off with high attendance.

Candice Ruud, news editor

news@dailybarometer.com, 737-2231

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