Multicultural and Diversity’s Maurice Nicholson: Municipal Spider-Man

This week, the Advocate sits down with MHCC’s Mulicultural and Diversity Resource Center’s Director, Maurice Nicholson.

What’s your favorite part of the job so far?

My favorite part always tends to be the same thing. It’s always the students making those connections with students... A lot of what I do is fueled by the work of students and the students themselves right what they want to see, what they envision this campus looking like, what they see the world as being. Definitely, the students have been my favorite part of the job, because without them, this work isn’t as easy and it isn’t as valuable.

What about your least favorite?

My least favorite, having a budget, having constraints… instead of this being a program or opportunity to only serve a few students. It’s thinking about the amount of students that we’re not able to serve, the students that we’re not able to connect with on a day to day basis, the students that drop out and leave and they never get that impact from being at a college campus and being able to realize what their dreams are, how they can realize them on the college campus itself…not having the ability to support and, you know, be limited financially or fiscally or with, you know, different areas of campus, or not having things fully operational or fully built. Those are the things that keep me up at night. Is not being able to serve students in that capacity because we’re limited.

What should Mount Hood students know about you and/or your department?

They should know that if they come into my office one, they’re probably going to see 1000 different things… me being a nerd and all the Marvel stuff that I tend to love. I grew up on Marvel… that kind of transformed my whole life in terms of thinking about the world – my favorite superhero, the friendly neighborhood Spider Man. He serves the community first. So that’s where my beliefs in the community transitioned and came from. Being that for my community, the municipal Spider Man. Whatever I was going to do in life, I told myself that I would have those same kind of values, and treat people with kindness, respect people, and serve the community, and do it because that’s what was best for the community. Because of the things that I come with, I just try to be… friendly and I try to be as positive. And think about ways that I can support students.

I think about my journey, being a first generation college student, not having support at times in my life, and just having to go through so many things on my own. And so for me it’s about how can I do that for others? How can I support students where they’re at? How can I meet them when the demands are so high on them, when expectations are so high?

For me, it’s been about how can I utilize everything that I know and everything that I grew up with – the values, the books, the lessons both good and bad, to fuel an individual who’s walking into college for the first time that is unsure of themselves. They’re unsure of the journey ahead of them. They don’t have someone to support them. They don’t have anyone rooting for them. I try to be anything and everything that I can be for that student, because that person, to me, may be the person that changes this world for the better. And that’s kind of how I want to leave it… if I could leave this world a better place than what I was given, that’s that’s my goal in life.

What’s a typical day here look like for you?

Most of the time for me is coming in, and helping make sure the office is set up and ready to go – because the Student Union is one of the central hubs for college students here at Mount Hood. Ensuring that students have coffee, water, basic needs are met, food or different snacks, making sure that the Multicultural and Diversity Resource Center is open.

Also making sure there’s something fun playing on the screen, whether it’s music, a DJ set that’s clean, or a cartoon that shows multiculturalism, or students who are multicultural in various ways. And then from there, it’s any number of things. It could be programs. It could be meeting with students. It could be supporting a student through an issue. It could be helping a student. Helping a student at the front desk. It could be supporting my colleagues. I try to lead by example. I try to go out and ensure that people see my face, that they see me as my authentic self. So I don’t wear a suit and tie unless it like absolutely calls for it. But I like to show up and be my authentic self whenever I come in, and most of my day is just going with the flow, but also maintaining the status quo – how can we bring multiculturalism, diversity, and inclusion? How can we make this as equitable as possible for all the students at Mount Hood – not just students of color, but students from all backgrounds and origins. Do they have a space to belong to, and do they feel that they have that connection as well?

Is there anything else you want to plug?

I grind a lot of Animal Crossing, which I know sounds hilarious, but I love Animal Crossing … I’ve been playing a lot of Fortnite on my switch. I like a lot of art – I like to do museums. I like to go out into the community and see artwork or exhibits. I’m very much someone who likes to get outside and see the world for what it is.

If you would have asked me the same question last year, I would have told you that I host trivia. I was a trivia host for about two and a half years at a bar in the Bay Area before I moved here… I used to work at a bar in San Jose, and I did trivia there for those two and a half years.

I do Comic Con, I go to a lot of cons. Anything that deals with pop culture, movies, TV, TV comics, cartoons… you’ll either catch me at a comic book store, a cafe, or a con, doing something crazy. I went to Comic Con in 2023 which was my first one.

The Multicultural Diversity Resource Center, and, more specifically, the Student Union. We have a ton of exciting programs coming up, especially in this winter quarter. Definitely tell students to look out for some nice opportunities to not only engage multiculturalism, but backgrounds and various identities of a number of different people.

I would also plug our coffee hour. Every Thursday, we started doing a activity called the coffee hour – every Thursday, from 12 to 1:30 in the Multicultural Diversity Resource Center, we engage with both international and domestic students, and we bring them together in a space where they can all communicate with one another from their various backgrounds and share a common activity.

We have some exciting stuff coming up, like a peanut butter and jelly jam day where we’re going to make peanut butter and jelly. And we’ll also do some stuff like public safety trainings … it’s not going to be called public safety training, but we’re looking at ideas that are going to ensure that our students feel connected but also supported. And they have something that they can all come around to, which is like a nice, simple activity that’s fun and engaging.

Last one, who’s somebody else interesting at Mount Hood that we should interview next?

Anyone from my staff. I would also love to hear something about Jorge upstairs.