Attending LGBTQ college conference makes students realize WMU is a leader in diversity and inclusion in the Midwest

Western Herald - news









A group of Western Michigan University students headed to Navy Pier Friday, Feb. 17, with high hopes that the 25th anniversary of an annual LGBTQ conference would provide insight and inspiration. Instead, many of the students came away with the realization that there is a lot of work yet to be done.   











The WMU Office of LBGT Student Services funded a group of 14 students to attend the 25th anniversary of the Midwest Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Ally College Conference held Feb. 17-19 in Chicago. While the students who attended said the conference did have its highlights, overall the experience made them realize how advanced WMU is in its practice of diversity and inclusion, and how much room other universities still have to grow.   






WMU junior Jon Curtis, an office assistant at the Office of LBGT Student Services, attended the conference last year and volunteered to take charge of organizing for the group to attend this year.





“It’s always a great experience to just be in that environment with a bunch of other like-minded people and to be around other queer people who feel or have similar experiences that you do,” Curtis said. “That aspect of it was wonderful.”





However, Curtis said many of the workshops offered this year were intro-level and some of the facilitators missed the opportunity to talk about more in-depth issues and seemed unprepared.





“It was definitely eye-opening to be in the environment where I felt like all of the Western students were kind of above it,” Curtis said. “We’re at a different level when we’re thinking about these things critically and that says that Western is highly inclusive, or at least highly inclusive in the aspect that other universities haven’t caught up to us yet.”





For sophomore Nick Smith, a member of OUTspoken, a registered student organization that focuses on LGBTQ support ...


Read more