About Us
The Intercultural Center strives to influence campus culture by cultivating intercultural knowledge, competency and leadership. We are committed to enhancing the experience of domestic and international underrepresented groups by offering co-curricular programming, student support and engagement, identity development initiatives and opportunities for comprehensive learning and development.
History
The Office of Minority Affairs was created in 1978 by Dr. Herman Eure to foster the success of the small number of Black students enrolled at Wake. During this time, OMA worked closely with the Admissions office to increase Black student enrollment and manage the merit scholarship funds for Black students. In 1995, under the direction of Dr. Barbee Oakes, the office changed its name to the Office of Multicultural Affairs to broaden the support to include all ethnic minority students and first generation college students. Over the next 20 years, the office added a host of new initiatives and programs, saw an incredible increase in the number of multicultural student organizations, and a vast amount of diversity efforts emerge on campus. As the University demographics increasingly became more diverse, the decision was made in the Fall of 2015 to change the name to the Intercultural Center. With the change in the name the scope of the office expanded to assist both domestic and international underrepresented students by further emphasizing identity development and strengthening the intercultural skills of students. The IC is looking forward to continuing the more than 40 year legacy of OMA and leading the important changes that will emerge through this transformation.