Dr. Lawrence Griggs Center for Black and Indigenous Student Success

Welcoming students with academics, guidance and community, all in one place.

Walk along the mezzanine level of the Memorial Union, and in the northeast corner, a new community is taking shape.

The Dr. Lawrence Griggs Center for Black and Indigenous Student Success aims to be a one-stop place where students can find tutoring and peer support, help with financial aid and other questions, and even things to do around Corvallis. According to center director Dorian Smith, the aim is to offer holistic support, centralize services and create a comfortable, welcoming environment.

“They have a place to study, a place to relax. They have academic and personal and social support,” Smith says. “For just about any question, they can get it answered. Or if we can’t find the answer, we will go out and find somebody who knows.”

Although students of color make up 28% of all students at Oregon State, Black and Indigenous students — which includes Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders — number less than 1,000. The Griggs Center, which opened in fall 2021, is part of a five-year effort in the Division of Student Affairs to reverse a decline in the number of Black and Indigenous students applying to, enrolling at and graduating from Oregon State. That requires focusing on those students’ specific issues and delivering culturally relevant support, Smith says. One small, but visible way to do that is by featuring art created by Black and Indigenous students on the walls, something Smith is currently working on.

Along with Smith and Christy Jones, who works with Indigenous students, the Griggs Center has six student employees, two who are tutors and four who are academic coaches. The center also partners with colleges and the Academic Success Center to provide tutoring, supplemental instruction and peer academic coaching.

Specific academic support is currently available in engineering, math and chemistry, and Smith is working to bring in more resources and partners, including the Writing Center, Career Development Center and Human Services Resource Center. Instructors from Oregon State’s Educational Opportunities Program have held office hours in the Griggs Center, and Smith welcomes other OSU faculty and academic advisors to join them.

“We’d love to work with you, to find ways to support what you’re doing in your courses to support our students,” Smith says.

Other partners include the Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center, Kaku-Ixt Mana Ina Haws and two living-learning communities, Nia Black Scholar and munk-skukum Indigenous. Smith says they offer cultural programming and events that complement the academic services offered in the Griggs Center, and he envisions more collaborations across the university.

“It can’t just be the Griggs Center and EOP doing the work,” Smith says. “It’s a whole university that believes this matters, and we can all collaborate to be more intentional in supporting students. I think we can really help make OSU more welcoming to everyone and more supportive of all our students. So this is a giant step.”

Smith credits Jesse Nelson, formerly associate provost for academic achievement, Janet Nishihara, executive director of EOP, Dan Larson, vice provost for student affairs, and Deb Mott, director of the Memorial Union, for their commitment to Black and Indigenous student success and for championing the Griggs Center. And its location in the Memorial Union is more than just the “good logistics of being in the center of campus where it’s easy for anybody to get to,” he says.

“There’s a symbolic statement too. Putting the Griggs Center in the MU shows that it is a priority, that these concerns matter because we’re putting it in a building that so many people use,” Smith says. “It’s increasing the visibility of our support for Black and Indigenous students.”

The center is named for Lawrence Griggs, who started working in the Educational Opportunities Program as a Ph.D. student in 1972 and served as its director from 1986 until his retirement in 2008. Smith says Griggs, who died in 2020, is responsible for thousands of students coming to Oregon State, staying and graduating, encouraging them to “Just give me one more term” when they faced difficult times.

“Whether it was buying diapers for students or finding scholarships out of thin air, he was always going above and beyond,” Smith says. Griggs was always honest with students, giving them “that real message that they needed to finish school, or to make them not just think about it, but actually to go on to grad school.

“He did what this center intends to do. It’s his legacy.”

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