LGBT Resource Center open

A new Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transsexual (LGBT) Resource Center has opened in the MOSAIC office in an effort to reach out to the LGBT community.     

After requests by faculty and staff to the Chancellor's office for a program that better served the LGBT community, a partnership with the Pikes Peak Gay & Lesbian Community Center was formed in order to create the new Center. The Center's website states, "The LGBT Resource Center @ MOSAIC exists as part of UCCS's on-going commitment to fostering a positive and inclusive atmosphere for everyone here on campus.

As part of the Multicultural Office for Student Access, Inclusiveness, and Community (MOSAIC), the LGBTRC is designed to provide resources and information to LGBT students, advocate for LGBT interests throughout campus, conduct outreach and education, and to ensure LGBT voices are represented among the campus at large."

The center is directed by Keri Smith, a first-year graduate student at UCCS majoring in sociology. She said that part of her desire to head this new center was that she has always felt compelled to "fight inequality." Smith hopes that students come away from the center with not only a feeling of comfort from within the LGBT community, but from the entire campus as well. "We are all here to build a more inclusive environment on and around campus," she said.

"We are a hub that will bring people, resources and networks together."

MOSAIC Director Anthony Cordova is optimistic that the Center will be a positive step for the LGBT community on campus as well. "Respecting diversity is what inclusiveness should be about. We need to make everyone aware that we all need to be more visibly supportive," he stated. 

The MOSAIC office is located in the University Building and hours for the new Center are drop-ins on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 2 to 6 p.m. or by appointment. There will be an opening ceremony on Feb. 16 at 4 p.m., where the staff will be introduced and Chancellor Pamela Shockley-Zalabak will share her thoughts on the new Center.

Anyone with questions or comments is asked to contact Keri Smith at keri@yourpridecenter.org.