Cultural Lounges

[sea...@umich.edu]

Recently, Stockwell required anyone who wanted access to the Rosa Parks Lounge (where we had our last meeting) to attend a cultural presentation, and a lot of the residents didn't like the new requirement.
I'm not sure if this process (presentations on cultural issues) is required for access to all Cultural Lounges by the DPE program or if it is a Stockwell only decision; however, most residents viewed the presentation as a 'punishment' in that they had to sacrifice their time to forcibly learn about another culture to get access to a lounge that they paid for through their housing charges.
Because of that, most people have lost access to a quiet and nice lounge in Stockwell. I was wondering if instead of the cultural presentation requirement, if it would be possible to simply place information in the particular lounges on the culture/person that lounge is dedicated. This way, people who appreciate the culture can voluntarily engage in it during a short study break in a cultural lounge, and it eliminates the potential problem of forcing people to attend these presentations, which only seems to lead to students viewing them as punishments and curtailing the desired cultural respect.