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Printer-Friendly ModeSAFE week kicks off today, focuses on student similarities
April 10, 2006 —
A week of activities to emphasize students' similarities rather than differences starts tonight as the Gay-Straight Alliance sponsors Students Acting For Equality, or SAFE, at SVSU.
A kick-off party in the Multi-purpose Room will feature ice cream, chips, pop, games, and information tables and will be free to students, from 2 to 7 p.m. today.
The events continue on Tuesday and Wednesday with dodgeball in the Courtyard on Tuesday, from 2 to 6 p.m., and then "SAFE Gaymes," also in the Courtyard, from 1 to 4 p.m..
"The biggest thing that I am hoping for is that people will stop recognizing each other as gay or straight, black or white, whatever, stop looking at differences, and look at what makes us all similar," says GSA President Aaron Brown.
Wednesday night the "politically progressive" Canadian band Ember Swift will perform in the banquet rooms in Curtiss Hall at 8 p.m. GSA treasurer Meg Gotham brought in the Indie/Rock group. The female singer/songwriter, with the same name as the aforementioned band title, is known for her "deft mix of art and music melded with activism and social awareness."
By having such a politically charged group perform, Brown hopes students will be "energized" to go through the summer and into the fall aware of some of the issues that will be brought up in the fall elections, which include gubernatorial, senatorial and state representative.
Thursday brings a wrap-up forum in the Alumni Lounge from 3 until 5 p.m. The panel discussion will include GLBT professionals from the community. They will speak about what college was like for them being in the GLBT community, and what similarities or contrasts exist in the real world. They will also talk about what kinds of challenges exist.
Brown says he feels students should walk away from any of these events thinking, "'That was really fun, I played with three people who might be gay or lesbian or what have you, and it was the same.'"
Since it is getting close to the end of the school year, this will be the last event put on by the GSA.
"We're hoping this will be a good cap-off project," Brown says. Still, certain projects are ongoing year round.
The "Safe Space Project" is a way for people to identify gay friendly faculty, staff, administrators, and RA's.
If an individual is having a problem and does not necessarily want to go to the Student Counseling Center on campus, he or she can go to these people and explain their problem and ask where to get help.
"What we hope is that people involved in this program will filter them through to us to help so that we can give them the adequate help and give them to the proper outlet," Brown says. "Whatever help they need, we just want to be here for them to be a resource."
The group has pushed itself to be more active in the campus community this year, whereas in years past, they might have stuck to themselves trying to build their numbers.
This year, the group has taken a different turn, sponsoring large events and "presenting themselves for everyone to see," Brown says. The group has put on "Growing up Gay," and the Judy Shepard and Judge Rudy Serra lectures.
Brown says he would also like students to know that "GSA is for everyone, gay, straight, whoever, we are here for everyone" and that the GSA is not only political, but social as well.