Q Center, summer 2020

Q Center department operations

• Following the movement to remote work and virtual classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 18, 2020, the Q Center created a 24-hour virtual center to continue the work of our mission. Using the online platform Discord, the Virtual Q Center was launched on March 23, to provide a space for LGBTQ students to stay connected. There were 33 students who joined the Discord virtual center, including a few students who had not used the on-campus center space. Rooms in the virtual center include a music room, a vent-your-heart-out room that was managed by our MSW graduate intern, a room dedicated to the Pegasus FYE program and a general lounge room. The virtual center is being continued into the fall to offer an additional mode of communication and contact for students.

Additional responses to COVID-19:

• Q Vent: A weekly Zoom meeting that allowed students to vent together in a safe space. This judgment-free zone was created by our MSW graduate intern, Michael Burt, under the supervision of his department-assigned field leader. Unfortunately, very few students used the space over the month of April.
• Virtual events: There were a number of virtual events offered using Zoom including trivia nights, community lunches, etc. These were also not well attended so they were discontinued part way through April.
• Virtual Lavender Celebration and Pride Awards: The date of this event was moved to accommodate additional planning needed to make it virtual. The celebration committee, made up of representatives of the LGBTQ students organizations as well as faculty and staff, worked overtime to make this virtual celebration extra special, especially for our seniors who spent most of the semester in deep mourning. The committee secured five special celebrity guests who donated their appearances for this event: Steven Canals, co-creator of Pose: Justin Sayre, comedian and philanthropist: Brooke Cartus, LGBTQ activist and comedian: Mrs. Kasha Davis, RuPaul’s Drag Race: and Leigh Nash, Sixpence None the Richer. This, the fourth annual event, had the highest attendance at 91 people and the highest registration for graduates at 41.

Q Center education and training

• The Active Ally Program shifted to virtual formats utilizing Zoom as our workshop space. This shift required changing the process of how activities and dialogues are managed by the staff. To accommodate these shifts, the Active Ally program utilized several online platforms including Qualtrics, Google Forms and Zoom to develop activities that simulate the same learning objectives but in a socially remote environment.
  
  Six virtual training sessions were scheduled. This included two new Deep Dive workshops designed by our SOGIE Peer Educators. Of the six workshops, four were for employees and included our full range for Tier I: Foundations I, Intersex Identity, Trans 101 and Unpacking CisHet Privilege. CisHet is short for Cisgender/Heterosexual. There were a total of 19 participants across three of the four trainings. Unpacking CisHet Privilege did not meet the minimum requirement for attendance. Unfortunately we faced great challenges and did not meet our minimum requirements for attendance in any of our offerings for students. While disappointing, this was in keeping with a lack of participation in many other Q Center virtual offerings.
  
  As we move into the fall semester, the goal of the Active Ally Program will be to better manage marketing to students focusing on the professional certification aspect of our program. In addition, we plan to create partnerships with several pre-professional disciplines and programs on campus. This will help us better identify target student audiences for the Actively Ally program.
  
  
• Two Human Sexual Identity workshops were done with our campus partners in the faculty and in the TRiO program. Both of these engagements featured the Q Center’s goal of preparing and offering packaged educational programming in focused content areas to better support our campus partners without detracting from the goals of the Active Ally Program.
• One Student Speakers Bureau Panel was conducted for a class in the Human Development Program.