During the Fall of 2021 the Greene Center began enhancing its resources and connections for students from a variety of identity communities. Through this process we have built out not only our LGBTQ+ identity community page, but also worked with others from around the university to identify and promote community conversations, alumni connections and mentors, and highlighting specific content for LGBTQ+ individuals. Below is an overview of these efforts, as well as a request for your feedback!
Greene Center LGBTQ+ Community
This online community streams career content including blogs, videos, resources, events and more specifically for LGBTQ+ students and job seekers. Throughout the month of June we will be refreshing content weekly, highlighting a variety of sites and voices, and bringing in specific job search content. The page also has a section for alumni connections, highlighting alumni career volunteers within the LGBTQ+ community specifically. We are actively seeking content contributors and guest bloggers for the future!
The Meliora Collective’s LGBTQ+ Community
“The University of Rochester LGBTQ+ community group is committed to celebrating the members of our community and fostering an environment that allows people to engage in ways that are authentic to them. This group provides a space to connect with other members of the community from a variety of backgrounds to share experiences, discuss ideas, and more. Welcome!”
Also on The Meliora Collective, you can search for others by an affinity tag for “LGBTQ+” or by a pronoun search that includes gender nonbinary and gender fluid options.
The Greene Center’s commitment to gender and pronoun inclusivity
The Greene Center has also focused on and had input into the inclusion of pronouns in several of our technical partnerships. Beginning in 2020, Handshake included the ability to create custom gender and pronoun selections on student profiles. The Meliora Collective was also designed specifically with gender inclusion in mind, where members can search for individuals identifying as male, female, transgender, non-binary and an “other” category inclusive of gender expansive, genderfluid and genderqueer, as well as those who have selected an LGBTQ+ affinity tag.
SafeSpace and LGBTQ+ training commitment
Finally, most staff of the Greene Center have participated in university SafeSpace training (with a goal of 100%), with many also opting to complete the College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering’s “Creating a Queer-Inclusive AS&E” training series.
Have ideas on how we can do more and better?
Please reach out to LGBTQ+ Career Community leads Amber Graham, Danae King and Julie Moore with ideas, content leads, collaboration opportunities or feedback!
We are also actively seeking conversations with LGBTQ+ students and student organizations in the fall of 2022 to inform our practice, define challenges and develop solutions.
