Renn, K. A. (2011). Identity centers: An idea whose time has come . . . and gone? In P. M. Magolda & M. B. Baxter Magolda (Ed.) Contested issues in student affairs: Diverse perspectives and respectful dialogue. (pp. 244-254). Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
“The answer to the question posed in the title of this essay depends in part on which faculty, students, or administrators one is concerned about dividing or uniting. Historically, identity centers have brought together faculty, students, and administrators within the communities represented in the centers, but they have also become lightning rods for accusations for self-segregation or campus balkanization and locations for in-group discrimination (e.g. racism in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender [LGBT] centers, sexism in ethnic centers). Identity centers are one institutional response to helping students cope with campus climates characterized by outright hostility and subtler, but no less harmful, microaggressions. They are also sites of positive, strengths-based identity development. Yet, the idea persists that women or students of color or LGBT students who get together in their own centers are practicing reverse sexism, racism, or heterosexism; a common criticism I s that identity centers create spaces that deprive majority students of opportunities to meet the other. I propose four reasons these centers exist and should remain: (a) they respond to noninclusive campus climates, (b) they are part of the ecology of identity groups on campus, (c) some centers play a role in bridging academic and student affairs, and (d) they carry on traditions and have a symbolic function. First, however, I define identity centers and present the case for centers as dividing, rather than uniting forces.” (pp. 244-245)