For Julia Keleher, director of the University of Idaho LGBTQA Office, the center is a major factor in how LGBTQA+ students find community and view their safety on campus.
The LGBTQA Office formed as a part of the Women’s Center around 2007 and eventually became a stand-alone unit in 2013. It offers a variety of services, such as scholarships, trainings and helping students and faculty implement their preferred first name around UI systems. For the last few years, it has been rated the top campus for LGBTQA+ students, according to Keleher.
Keleher has overseen many of the office’s goals for the past year, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Normally, the office is very open and in-person, so adjustments were made to adapt virtually, but this didn’t inhibit student interaction according to Keleher.
“One of our biggest accomplishments was one-on-one student interaction,” she said. “We wanted to hear that students are doing well and are feeling emotionally supported.”
Another accomplishment of the office over the past year is their campus-wide trainings and the ability to provide them successfully during the pandemic. The office offered a variety of trainings involving general diversity, social justice and LGBTQA+ support. These included an introduction to oppression and discrimination, Green Dot, Transgender 101 and Sex in the Dark partnered with Vandal Health.
Keleher has several goals for the office to pursue in the upcoming year as well. These include general events towards raising awareness like Cultural Heritage Month, more programs related to gender identity, recruiting for the LGBTQA Scholar’s Program and, of course, adapting back to being in-person.
“A big goal for us is to do those in person events again,” Keleher said. “We want to do some entertainment options, put out the Coming Out Carnival and our annual drag show.”
To Keleher and the students involved with the LGBTQA Office, it is a vital part of the campus community, a safe space important to diversity and inclusion. Keleher feels it helps how students view their safety and support.
“When I was an undergraduate, we only had a small office and limited resources, and being a queer transgender student on campus, I felt very isolated,” Keleher said. “Having that dedicated resource where people say, ‘We honor your identity and are here to support you,’ really makes an impact on a student’s view of campus. I’m hoping students find a home where they can find support and similar experiences.”
Nick Mannino, a UI student and active participant in the LGBTQA Office, feels the center helped him find that sense of community that other students find in different organizations.
“It’s like how some people have fraternities that they can land in, or how others have ROTC or different groups that you automatically join and have a network of people to interact with so you’re not alone, that was very much the LGBTQ center for me, specifically the LGBT Scholars,” Mannino said. “Here is a group of people that you have some connection with, that you can go talk to and not feel alone on this big campus.”
To learn more about the LGBTQA Office, more information is available on their page. Their next event is a Safe Zone training on Aug. 11.
Bailey Brockett can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @baileybrockett