UW News

March 30, 2006

New campus groups celebrate diversity with two public events

Two new groups on campus, the Black Faculty and Staff @ UW Association and Qolors, will hold meetings in coming days.


Life on the UW campus for people across the spectrum of sexual and gender orientation will be the focus of “PiQtures of Pride: More Vibrant in Qolor,” a panel discussion, presentation and social at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 4, in the Walker-Ames room of Kane Hall.



Qolors, a new campus group borne of a collaboration between the Q Center and the Ethnic Cultural Theater, is sponsoring the event along with the Office of Minority Affairs and the Vice Provost for Diversity.


Jennifer Self, director of the Q Center, said the panel will explore what it’s like “to be both queer and a person of color in academia — what their experience has been.” She added, “The whole idea of the event is to start building a community that is connected and visible for queers on campus.”


The Q Center’s stated mission is to “facilitate and enhance an open, safe, inclusive, and celebratory environment for bisexual, lesbian, gay, queer, Two-spirit, transgender, intersex, questioning, same-gender-loving, differently oriented, and allied students, faculty, and staff.”


The event will include PhotoVoice presentations (a sort of narrated slide show) about life on the UW campus. For more information about the event, call the Q Center at 206-897-1430 or the Ethnic Cultural Center at 206-543-4635.

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The new Black Faculty and Staff @ UW Association was founded to support the recruitment, retention and success of African American students, faculty and staff at the UW and to expand the relationship of black faculty and staff in the UW and its surrounding community.


The public in general and members of color of the campus community in particular are invited to celebrate this new organization with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 12, at the Hec Edmundson Pavilion Founder’s Club. The meeting is an opportunity to connect or reconnect with colleagues on campus and help shape the new association.


Please RSVP by April 5 to Namura Nkeze at nnkeze@u.washington.edu or 206-221-7460.