On The Edge News

By Rachel Gomoll 

Edgewood College Student Senate and SAFE, the LGBTQ+ advocacy group on campus, came together March 3 to have a town hall where they discussed how Student Senate could help SAFE, as well as promote next year’s MBLGTACC, the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference. 

Campus requests 

SAFE President Sean O’Brien asked whether students could have their pronouns listed on class rosters and whether Student Senate or TAC, the technology assistance center, could help with that. 

In addition, O’Brien said, there were other opportunities. “During Pride Month, June, having a pride flag raised on one of the poles around campus.” 

Susan Hollingsworth, associate professor of Mathematics and one of the faculty who helped create the Queer Student Center on campus, said support from Student Senate could make pronoun listing happen more quickly.  

“I would certainly like to have that information when I’m coming into the class,” Hollingsworth said. “That would be nice. I think that they’re working on making that happen, but that has been very slow… I don’t know why it’s not happening now, actually. When they say, ‘We’re working on it,’ I don’t know what ‘working on it’ is.”   

O’Brien also asked the marketing office for stickers for SAFE to use, like those that students put on their water bottles or phone cases. 

MBLBTACC 

MBLGTACC is an annual conference to educate, connect and empower LGBTQ+ college students as well as faculty and staff. 

The conference will be Feb. 12-14, 2021, at Monona Terrace in Madison. Registration is estimated to be $85, according to Edgewood student Amir Franklin, who is on the planning committee for the event. 

Emily Fritts, social media manager for Edgewood’s Women Empowerment club, expressed her support for the conference and agreed that it did a good job of educating people. Fritts attended the 2020 conference.  

“I think because there were such good speakers and a focus on educating and getting points across, it was a really good opportunity and a really good conference,” she said. 

As of right now, the event is not expected to be postponed or cancelled because of the COVID-19 virus.