SUNY-ESF Brave Space fosters community for underrepresented, marginalized groups
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Danara Dormaeva had just finished a difficult exam and had to prepare for another assessment. Dormaeva, a sophomore at SUNY-ESF student who moved to the U.S. in 2016, decided to spend the rest of her day at the college’s new Brave Space, an area designed for traditionally underrepresented and marginalized communities on campus.
“It’s pretty inclusive here,” said Dormaeva. “I feel welcomed here. I use the Brave Space about two times a week.”
In November 2021, ESF announced the opening of the Brave Space, which was designed to improve campus climate and foster a sense of community for underrepresented and marginalized groups as well as their allies, according to a press release. An anonymous $10,000 donation to the school’s Undergraduate Student Association funded the space — located in Room 11 of Bray Hall — and its Office of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity worked with the USA to oversee the project.
Lexi Chipules, a fifth-year ESF student and the president of ESF’s USA, said these students needed a place to feel comfortable and welcomed at the university. Marshall Hall, one of ESF’s main buildings, has been closed for construction, making the Brave Space an even larger priority, she added.
“It was really important that people from different backgrounds, cultures and identities had a space on campus where they could feel safe,” Chipules said.
Chipules said ESF’s USA has worked tirelessly over the summer to begin preparations for renovating the space. Additionally, because the ESF University police are also housed in Bray Hall, she said the building is accessible 24/7.
The Brave Space is just the start of projects designed to better welcome and comfort ESF’s students from diverse backgrounds, Chipules added.
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Lizette Rivera, the director of student inclusion initiatives at ESF and special assistant to the chief diversity office, said that as a head faculty member at ESF’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity, she was a key figure in developing the new Brave Space. She added that the Brave Space is just the first of many projects they hope they can complete.
“We are working to get a commitment from the college for a bigger, larger space,” Rivera said. “That’s what we’re working on right now. The current Brave Space is open to anyone on ESF, but also specifically designated for marginalized communities to come together.”
But the Brave Space is just the first of many projects she hopes the college will complete, Rivera said. Her office has a new grant, titled the Louis Stokes Alliance of Minority Participation, she said, and organizations such the Black Student Union are working with the college to create a larger space on campus.
“We created those initiatives about two years ago specifically from listening to students, and hearing what they wanted,” Rivera said. “They wanted more representation and more programming. So, we created these initiatives.”
Additionally, Ebby Adukkalil, the temporary coordinator for student involvement and leadership at ESF, said ESF has hosted events, such as a banquet, to help recognize and commemorate Black History Month on campus. He also said he set up community breakfasts for students from across campus to connect.
Adukkalil works with Registered Student Organizations and special student interest groups on campus, and he said he worked closely with ESF’s USA to create programs and events to provide a welcoming environment for all ESF students. Ultimately, students have been at the forefront of recent changes designed to better comfort traditionally underrepresented students at the university, he said.
“That’s something that we’re still working on, as a college,” Adukkalil said. “I’ve seen just from my time here the leaps and bounds now. Groups on campus and students who find themselves in those organizations to feel empowered, and to be able to go and do those things.”
