The Q Center fall 2019
Personnel
In July, the Q Center hired its first staff member. Ian Shick was hired as the coordinator for education and training on a temporary, part-time line through June 2020. Shick works 32 hours per week. His chief responsibilities are to build up the Safe Zone/Active Ally Program and to field the multiple requests for training and presentations received by the Q Center each semester.
New Student Summer Orientation
Each year, the Q Center supports Summer Orientation by tabling during the Campus Resources Fair and presenting a short, five-minute presentation at all 17 Orientation sessions. We heavily promote our Pegasus First-Year Experience Program (Pegasus FYE). Pegasus FYE is designed to support LGBTQ students during their first semester of college. While also open to students who identify as allies to the LGBTQ community, the program’s goal is to specifically connect LGBTQ students to each other within their graduating class, to connect them to the Q Center and to support their socialization and adjustment to college. Pegasus FYE is made up of three distinct parts: Rainbow Welcome, a UNIV 101 FYE course and the Pegasus Programming Board. During Orientation, students are recruited for the program and can register to participate in one, two or all three aspects.
Other Orientation requests
In addition to New Student Orientation, the Q Center participated in these additional orientation programs:
- New Faculty Orientation tabling
- International Student Orientation, both graduate and undergraduate sessions
- Graduate School Orientation tabling
Pegasus First-Year Experience Program
Rainbow Welcome was held Monday, Aug. 19, less than 24 hours after first-year students moved in. This event is a “get to know you” event and is strategically held the day after first-year move-in so that LGBTQ students can get connected to each other. This year, 60 students participated in the two-hour event. Most students also accepted an invitation to an “after party” in the Q Center that provided additional unstructured time for students to connect as well as a visit to the Q Center. This “after party” was added on this year in response to past event evaluations where participants suggested that they needed more unstructured time to just talk and get to know each other.
The ABCs of LGBTQ: Identities, Histories and Cultures (UNIV 101Q) represents an exciting evolution to our Pegasus FYE Seminar. The seminar has been offered through the center the past two years as a non-credit course. Students registered for the course through the Q Center, and while it has met student needs, students tended to drop out of the seminar as the semester wore on due to time constraints and needs of their for-credit classes. This year, the Q Center submitted a proposal to offer a UNIV 101 First-Year Experience Seminar and it was accepted by Harpur College. As a UNIV 101 course, students registered through the regular course registration process and received two credits for this class. There are a total of 18 students registered for the course, which caps at 20 students.