CNU Pride Week ‘24 was the first of its kind on campus with many students, faculty, and staff taking advantage of what the week had to offer. On Wed. Jan. 24, a faculty/staff open forum to discuss LGBTQ+ acceptance on campus was held in the Forbes Lecture Hall.
A large group of faculty gathered in the lecture hall to express their thoughts, concerns, and opinions on the way the LGBTQ+ community is treated on campus. President Kelly was also in attendance to learn about the change that the campus community would like to see.
A group of panelists opened the discussion by sharing their experiences in the LGBTQ+ community either as a member or as an ally. The panelists included Greg Lloyd (he/him) from the Department of Theater and Dance, Vickie Garton-Gundling (she/her) from the College of Social Sciences, Caroline McElhenny (they/she) from the Department of Physics, Computer Science, and Engineering, and Dr. Jaime Harris from the Department of Sociology. Moderating the forum was Dr. Anna Salazar from the Department of Molecular Biology and Chemistry.
The concern shared during the forum stems from how CNU has operated in the past. While not all faculty agreed that CNU is not as accepting as it could be, many faculty members were strong in their opinions that the campus community still has a long way to go.
A few suggestions were made for the campus to implement to show support for LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff. One of the suggestions was to encourage more identity-aware practices in the classroom. Much of the faculty has already begun doing this by having students share their names and pronouns on the first day of classes. The faculty a part of the forum believe this will create a safer space for all students no matter how they identify. The other suggestion that was made is to add pronouns on the faculty/staff nametags.
While there was more shared in the forum, it will not be included to protect those who used it as a safe space.
