Dionte Berry
News Editor
[email protected]

As campus plans to return to normal operations for the fall semester, so does student life on campus. The LGBT Programming Office has already posted their fall agenda and a new part of it is the Pride List.

During the spring 2021 semester, coordinator of the Women’s Center, Abigail Cox found that she would become the Interim Coordinator of LGBT Programming. Cox started planning for the upcoming semester and did so by listening to students and what they wanted to see on campus which is where the idea for the Pride List was born. 

“One thing that I heard from a lot of students was that they would like to know more people on campus who are supportive, who are allies and who are a part of the LGBT community, making more of a sense of community and just wanting to see more of a network established on campus,” Cox said.

With the student’s feedback Cox started to research what she could do to create that network and was inspired by what other campuses were doing and thought the Pride List would be a good place to start.

There have been similar lists done in the past, however they only had signatures from those on campus who had completed safe zone training. This training serves to give trainees a better understanding of the LGBT community thus being a safe space for those with LGBT related concerns. 

Unlike the Safe Zone training list, Cox saw that the Pride List had the opportunity to create a broader network on campus. 

Starting during Pride Month the Pride List can be signed until the last week of September and the list will be posted on October 1 to kick off the events for LGBT History Month.

“LGBT Programming will put together the publication of the list and share it with those that have signed it, and then we will share it through the LGBT Programming monthly newsletter,” Cox said. “We will post it on both of our social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram.”

Cox is looking forward to making the Pride List an annual activity, and so far there are around 280 students, faculty and staff that have signed the list. 

In addition to the Pride List for the Fall Cox is looking forward to incorporating academics into the LGBT Office. 

“We are going to have laptops in the office that students can check out and use in the center so students can do homework, study hours or print something off,” Cox said. “We definitely want to offer a space for students to come in and not only socialize, but get some support for the main reason they are here, which is for their academics.”

Those interested in signing the  Pride List can do so at the Office of LGBT Programming. For overall LGBT Programming events a calendar  for the 2021-2022 academic year can be viewed here.

“We hope to continue to engage as many people as possible,” Cox said. “We want to see that network of support grow throughout the campus.”