Queers and Allies

Krista Harberson, our ICC rep Chris, our beloved teddy bear Joe, and I, met with David Blake, director of ICC, this morning to discuss our room situation. The four of us presented the issues at hand and the concerns we discussed at last week’s meeting, as well as the comments left here at the blog. David was very receptive and open minded, and I trust him to do what he can to express our views to the reservation board.

I have emailed several times back and forth with Donna Wood, and both Krista and I have called David over the past week. Krista and I have also been in contact with the RD, Michael, at Boundary Village. I want to assure everyone that your officers and faculty adviser are doing all we can to speak out for the group.

The issues have come down to this:
-We need a space that is private.
-We look out first and foremost for the safety of our group, and if our students don’t feel safe traveling to a certain location for our meetings, that location will not do.
-The closer to the majority of freshman housing, the better.
-While we are willing to be flexible with our meeting time and day, class day evenings work best for the majority of our members.

-To the best of my knowledge, everyone involved has been told that Boundary Village is already reserved for Thursday evenings at 9pm.
-Q&A has been assigned to Barnard Village at our usual day and time until some place more suitable can be found.
-We have been told that there are other student groups facing similar problems this semester, and it reflects a larger organizational problem on the part of facilities, and in no way is a discriminatory practice against the Q&A group.
-A solution will be found.

So for tonight, January 29th, our meting will be held at the Barnard Village common room. Again I will postpone the meeting a few minutes to give everyone a chance to find transportation. As usual, bring your volunteer and fund raising ideas!!!

And Thank You All for being so cooperative. Really. Thank you.

I was hoping I would not have to make this post, but several changes have been made concerning the spaces available to the student organizations here at SCAD.

Unbeknownst to me, and though our last meeting went off without a hitch, we were not approved for our request of the Boundary Village common room for our meeting space.

Several other student groups are having this same problem, and it is being discussed amongst the ICC staff. David Blake and everyone else in the office is doing everything they can to find a place to accommodate us, but we may have to adjust our schedule.

The only other areas available Thursday nights at 9pm are the Barnard Village common room, and the Student Center.

The OHouse ballroom is very, very difficult to secure as Student Housing uses that space most often. Boundary Village may be closing its common area to student groups, as well as remaining locked in most cases due to a history of vandalism. This is not being blamed on any of the student groups, but extra precautions must be taken for security issues. Crites Hall may no longer allow most groups to meet in its classrooms for similar reasons.

I have made it clear to both Donna Wood, our friend and the woman in charge of processing room requests for student groups, and the ICC staff that we require a room that is private, and that is close to the majority of student housing, as many of our members live on campus and/or do not have their own vehicles.

That all being said, I need as much feedback as I can receive from all of you. If you know of a private space that I should be requesting, please let me know. If you would be willing to consider a different time or day of the week, I need to know that as well. Be as specific as possible. I will do my best to accommodate everyone’s schedule.

As it is, I am available to meet any weekday after 8pm. Our meeting time of 9pm was meant to allow students getting out of class at 7:30 to have a chance to get dinner or relax a bit before the meeting, but 8pm may be a better option for some others.

I can also arrange my work schedule to meet on the weekend in the afternoon or evening. I understand that a lot of students have weekend jobs or have certain times during the weekend set aside for homework, but, if there is an hour on Saturday or Sunday that works for a majority of the members, I wouldn’t be opposed to considering a weekend meeting.

Please leave your comments or email me at qaa@scad.edu.

As it stands right now Donna has reserved Barnard Village common room for us to meet this Thursday at our usual time. I know it is last minute, but if you can make it please do. I will try to contact as many of you as I can tomorrow to spread the news.

C.M.

Some notes from last night’s meeting:

ICC meeting, first of the semester, will be Friday January 16th at 11am. Meetings are held on the second floor of the student center. Please be there if you can, it is important that we all be active and involved with ICC. They are the ones who sign off on our budget, after all!

Volunteer Opportunities

Ronald McDonald House Volunteers: Adopt a Meal
Individuals, groups and organizations come into our House to prepare or provide a meal for the families every night! You can cook the meal in our House or provide an already prepared meal.
I will be putting together some dates and we’ll make a decision at the next meeting.

Also, Greg mentioned some contacts with Big Brothers, Big Sisters, so he’ll have more information on that next week. Also, our ICC liaison Chris works with SOS to volunteer at the Savannah Humane Society. I’ll post more info about that here once I have it.

Remember! Any volunteer service you provide to the community can be declared as service hours for Q&A. Though ICC no longer requires community service from the student groups, it is still an important experience for the students, and reflects well on the group and the SCAD community as a whole.

Movie Night with the Art History Society.
I received this email last week from AHS

Hello!
I’m Megan Kirby from AHS (Art History Society) and we’re starting a movie screening event to take place on the last Friday afternoon of the month.
We were hoping Q&A would be interested in co-hosting February’s movie screening; we’re showing a movie called “Dirty Pictures.” It’s about sexuality and censorship in museums, focused around Robert Mapplethorpe’s homosexual erotica from his “X Portfolio” collection.
We’re still in the process of confirming a specific room and time to meet, but we’re probably going to have it in Arnold around 2 or 3 pm. I don’t think there’s going to be any financial burden on Q&A, (though we might want to all bring some snacks!) We basically just want to get the word out to as many people possible about this, and we saw this collaboration between clubs as a great opportunity to do so.
You can email me or ahs@scad.edu with your response.
Thanks!!! Talk to you soon!
Megan Kirby
ICC liaison, AHS

Sounds like fun!! I will have more info on this at next week’s meeting as well.

Have a great weekend!!!