The Mary Spilde Downtown Center has been the temporary location for Eugene city council meetings since 2020.
Eugene City Council voted 7-1 to approve the purchase of the old EWEB building on Jan. 30. According to the city, “The terms of the deal include the 4.4-acre property, which includes two buildings and parking lots, for $12 million.”
The city has been using LCC’s Mary Spilde Center as their temporary space since 2020. This was met with resistance from students and LCC staff that use that building. The lease ended this month and the city had proposed purchasing the downtown building as their permanent location. Aliscia Niles, a staff member with Adult Basic and Secondary Education, works out of the Mary Spilde Center and spoke up at LCC board meetings against this purchase alongside Indira Bakshi who is an English as a Second Language teacher.
Niles shared that recently, “An advisory panel of a cross-campus group of stakeholders came together over several months to assess the college’s current and future potential activities in the Mary Spilde Downtown Center.” This was at the direction of President Stephanie Bulger with education and equity at the “forefront of the proposal.” Niles hopes that LCC will “use the advisory committee’s guidelines for future decisions, and specifically, that we re-center the building’s use around equitable teaching and learning while reviving our vibrant and beloved educational center in Eugene’s downtown once again.”
The city plans on moving into the old EWEB building in phases and services that are relocating have not been determined yet. The Mary Spilde Center was the temporary location for in-person city council meetings among other services. City Councilor Sarah Medary mentioned at the January meeting that this new deal will allow the city to pay for new council chambers. Niles does not know what this will mean for the Mary Spilde Center but she hopes that the marginalized students that used that space will be able to return.
