After more than two years of discussions, the new Multicultural Resource Center at Kansas University appears to be a step closer to reality.

Kansas University administrators had been waiting for a donor to be identified for the remaining $200,000 needed for the $2.7 million project, but decided recently to earmark state funds for the project instead. That should allow the project to move forward more quickly.

“We’re going to get started,” said Warren Corman, university architect. “It’s been a long time — two or three years.”

The approximately 7,000-square-foot facility will connect to the third and fourth floors on the north end of the Kansas Union.

It will be funded by $1.5 million in student fees and $1 million from an anonymous donor, in addition to the recently allocated $200,000 from the state.

“They’re going to dig it out from someplace,” Corman said of the state funds the university will use for the project. “They decided they had to honor their pledge to the students.”

The facility will replace the current MRC, which is located in a temporary building near the Military Science Building. Students have complained the facility is too small, deteriorating, and out of the way.

The MRC project was spearheaded by Jonathan Ng, who was student body president from 2002-2003. The new MRC likely will have meeting rooms, offices, a library and computer lab.

“The Multicultural Resource Center is a demonstration that our university values diversity education,” said Richard Johnson, dean of students and chairman of the building committee. “It values a diverse student population and what it brings to our campus. It shows we can continue to learn about each other.”

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Corman said the university is discussing fees with an architect. The design phase will take six to eight months, he said, with groundbreaking in late spring or early summer 2005. He said construction was expected to take about a year, and the MRC could open as early as summer 2006.

Though some students had criticized the KU Endowment Association for not working hard enough to raise money for the project, John Scarffe, an association spokesman, said the MRC had been a priority.

He noted the initial $1 million toward the project came quickly.

“We are still pursuing potential donors,” Scarffe said. “We have some prospects. We are closing in on the end of a major fund-raising campaign (KU First), and we have a lot of priorities.”