Home away from home

When Timeica Bethel ’11 arrives to work at the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale (affectionately known as “The House”), she walks past the Founders’ Room where the portraits of Donald Ogilvie ’68, Armstead Robinson ’69, and Glenn de Chabert ’70 grace the walls. The images are a testament to the founders’ spirit as Yale undergraduates in the late 1960s when they founded The House. It was the first Black cultural center of the Ivy League, originally named “Afro-America.” 

“The expressions on their faces are so piercing,’’ said Bethel, the center’s director and assistant dean. “I just think about their stories. I think about their courage. I think about the perseverance that it took for them to petition the university for a space for Black students on this campus in the late sixties, given everything that was happening at the time.” 

The House was home for Bethel during her undergraduate days at Yale. It was that rich experience coupled with her years in Teach For America as an instructor and a recruiter and her volunteer work on The House’s 50th anniversary that drew her back. Now, over two years into the role, Bethel is heading up the center’s 55th anniversary celebration with the help of alumni, House student leaders, and her colleague Sydney Feeney, assistant director of the center and proud New Havener. The anniversary event is one of Bethel’s and Feeney’s many responsibilities, which focus on the students and the sustainability of the spaces.

This is echoed in the 55th anniversary theme: “A House Built to Last: Celebrating Our Past While Planning for a Sustainable Future.” Feeney recalled that she hoped she would “get this job so I could support the efforts of the anniversary and continue on with the student-affairs work that I love so much. Being back in my hometown is special, and it has a meaningful connection for me.”

It’s all about the students

Undergraduates have played a major role in the administration of the center since its founding. They had a shared purpose with the New Haven community, hosting Black Panthers during May Day, and establishing the Urban Improvement Corps tutoring program. They planned, proposed, and petitioned for an African American Studies Department at Yale in addition to the center, and in the spring of 1968, the Yale Corporation approved both. Its nickname — The House — which took hold early in its history, reflected a feeling that it was a home away from home for the growing number of Black students and faculty. 

As the first and largest cultural center at Yale, the Afro-American Cultural Center has been a home base for Black students and others at Yale for more than five decades. Open to all, the House is a hub for anyone who wants to learn more and engage with the culture and traditions of the Black Diaspora.

House activities are still going strong today — 608 events took place in the 2023-2024 academic year alone. As director, Bethel is responsible for the entire operation of the center including its fiscal management, all with Feeney’s assistance. Bethel and Feeney supervise 49 undergraduate student workers and one graduate assistant. 

Undergraduate-run events keep the place humming, often organized by board leaders of one or more of the 50 campus groups affiliated with the center. The largest in the new year was the annual Black Solidarity Conference, attended by 500 students from all over the country. “It was a huge undertaking,” said Bethel, “and one way of supporting the students is for myself and Sydney to be on the ground with them every step of the way. I take the students’ leadership development very seriously, beyond just supervising their work.”

Feeney feels similarly about student engagement in her role. She and Bethel organize the student workers into sub teams and share the work. Feeney manages the intercultural and social justice, the arts, podcast, new student programming and outreach, and communications teams, and presides over the peer liaisons. “What’s most important to me day-to-day is that the students have what they need or know where to get it,” said Feeney. “For me, it’s all about the students.” 

There’s no place like home

“My goal is that today’s students feel like this is a place where they can be their authentic selves, and somewhere safe where staff members and peers will advocate for them,” said Feeney.

Bethel experienced this support firsthand when she was an undergraduate at Yale. “I was at The House every day,” she said. “I found my voice and became a leader here. I realized that I could speak up and people would listen; that I was valued in this space. It’s why I came back. And it’s why I still feel so safe here.”

Feeney finds that her connection to The House is doubly blessed because she is back in her hometown where her passion for African American history first blossomed. “In my predominantly Black city and high school,” she reflected, “I learned how Black history is American history, and if there is anything I can do in my work to make these Yale students’ lives easier, I’ll do it and feel very rewarded.”