By Institutional Equity, Effectiveness and Success Staff, VCU News
A group of students want to see the resources Virginia Commonwealth University offers for people from marginalized communities made more visible and accessible on the university’s website, and they recently pitched a plan to senior university officials to make that happen.
“I know my experience as a freshman. When I first got here everyone tells you, ‘Oh, join clubs, find your people, find the communities you want to be part of.’ But it’s pretty damn hard,” said Sally Wells, a senior in the VCUarts Department of Painting + Printmaking. The students emphasized that if locating resources on the university’s website is difficult for people who navigate the university structure every day, then it must be even more difficult for people without that knowledge, such as prospective students.
“I didn’t realize that I’m coming into a school where there are a lot of trans people and a lot of queer people too,” said Bryce Griego, a sophomore studying in the Department of Communication Arts. “There are a lot of people like me at VCU, and I was surprised. I could never tell that VCU had a huge queer population from just the website itself.”
The pitch meeting marked the end of Camp Qmunity 2022 for Wells, Griego and eight other students.