Poly Pride Promotes Growth of Diversity on Campus
Since its start only three years ago, Poly Pride has evolved into a club that does not just support LGBTQ+ individuals, but one that aims to have campus-wide involvement through community service, collaboration with other clubs, and student involved events. This semester, Pride plans to widen their horizons and become a more social club opposed to a strictly educational one.
Poly Pride is hosting a few events this semester. One event they anticipate being well received by the school is a student-run drag show, for which they are currently accepting participants. During the first annual CNY Pride conference last semester, the first ever drag show at SUNY Poly was the final event of the night in which they received over 30+ participants. One of the largest goals that Pride has for this semester is to get more campus involvement, especially from people who aren’t within the LGBTQ+ community. According to the President, Shane Megley, it’s very important for members of the SUNY Poly community to become involved in a club that is designed to make the campus as inclusive and safe as possible, regardless of their sexual orientation/gender identity. Pride is not just a club for becoming educated, but it’s a club for people to share their ideas on how to make SUNY Poly’s campus more welcoming and diverse.
Poly Pride is anticipating holding their second annual CNY Pride conference in the spring semester of this school year, they are hoping to invite schools in the Central NY area so the conference can grow, eventually become a staple event for the school. Additionally, they are currently in the process of creating a planning committee to ensure the event is the best it can be. Anyone and everyone is more than welcome to help plan and are encouraged to contact a member of the club. During last year’s conference, Pride brought in two diversity based speakers who did presentations, interacted with the attendees as well as provided safe zone training and bystander intervention. Pride hopes to expand its horizons a bit more this year and include some other optional activities throughout the day that could either be educational or more interactive.
As Vice President of this club, I can honestly say that this semester is going to be different than any we’ve had before. Not only is our club increasing in size, but it’s increasing in our presence on campus. This year we hope to be a larger club that’s oriented towards community building and outreach to the greater Utica area.
