With October being national LGBTQ history month, the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging and the Diversity Student Council has held several events to highlight this.
Adler Marchand, coordinator of the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging said, “The Diversity Student Council is a student-lead programing board that helps to put a variety of programs to celebrate, educate and bring awareness to our differences here at NSU.”
Giovanna Ibacahce, inclusion programing chair for the Diversity Student Council, said, “It’s rewarding work, especially after putting on HalloQueen, that was our biggest event so far and I really saw how people just got to have fun and feel safe and represented. I like to put my effort towards this project and see the pay off, especially when you are promoting all these amazing values. It’s really all about celebrating diversity through unity.”
Students have asked for events like these to be continued in the future.
Some LGBTQ+ students have reported that their comments criticizing events were deleted from the Diversity Student Council’s Instagram post. Marchand stated that the Diversity Student Council does not delete student comments, instead they may have deleted the post entirely. According to Marchand, the Diversity Student Council has received mostly, if not all, positive responses from students.
“We make sure our events are tailored to what students want, so we make sure to include as many people as possible. There were students that requested the drag show [and other events],” said Marchand.
The Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, the Diversity Student Council and the SLCE Office collaborated on the Tie Dye-versity event for National Coming Out Day. Coming up this week on Nov. 5, the Diversity Student Council will host a Vogue dancing workshop in the PVA dance studio room 233.
“Our belonging program chair spearheaded that [event]. The instructor will share some information about the history of vogueing and the importance of it,” said Marchand. “During this workshop, students can engage and learn about the style of vogue.”
Another upcoming event held by the Diversity Student Council will cover World AIDS day on Dec. 1. This event will be held in the University Center Spine. The Diversity Student Council hopes to raise awareness and educate students about HIV and AIDS.
The Diversity Student Council will also host general meetings where students can attend and present ideas for events held by the council and office. A specific date, time and location for these meetings has not been announced. However, updated information will be released on the Diversity Student Council’s Instagram page, @nsu_dsc.
