Queer umbrella: a student-employee collaboration to enhance 2SLGBTQ+ well-being and belonging

Abstract

Students and employees from Colorado State University School of Social Work partnered to co-lead a comprehensive student and employee community-building initiative focused on enhancing 2SLGBTQ+ student and employee well-being and belonging. The Queer Umbrella, created in response to queer and trans-identifying students and employees’ experiences within a heterosexist and cissexist departmental climate, obtained funding from the university to improve departmental climate and 2SLGBTQ+ student and employee retention by focusing on three priority areas: visibility, action, and resilience. The ambitious semester-long grant initiative incorporated a variety of activities such as resiliency-based mutual aid groups and 2SLGBTQ+ alumnx lectures, advocacy, and queer and trans celebratory events. The purpose of this brief is to 1) share our experiences as leaders of the Queer Umbrella initiative, 2) highlight the impact of the initiative, and 3) identify and assess systemic barriers encountered while executing the initiative.

Keywords:

• Queer theory
• resiliency
• campus belonging
• mutual aid
• social work

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the following people for their instrumental support. We appreciate Danie’s instrumental role in developing the QU initiative and the grant proposal. We’d like to thank Sarah, Ash, and Lauren for their invaluable contribution to the implementation of the grant activities. We also acknowledge and value the founding members of the QU, including Alison, Milena, Morgan, Tiffany, Anne, and Paula. Lastly, we are grateful to Michelle for her support of the QU initiative and her advocacy on our behalf.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The School of Social Work is located within the College of Health and Human Sciences.

2 Institutional review board approval was obtained to collect and analyze data from the Queer Peers pre- and post-survey and the LGBTQ speaker series evaluations.

3 Two researchers individually read through all qualitative data and developed inductive initial codes to represent participant’s experiences. The coders met to confer on the coding schema, reviewing data line-by-line and discussing variance in codes, until consensus was reached. They then developed code names, definitions, and a coding schema to represent salient themes and quotes.

4 The students and employees who are authors of this brief are also organizers of the QU initiative. The first two authors identify as white, queer and trans, disabled, graduate students, one of whom also identifies as a first-generation university student. The third author is a white, cisgender, queer instructor and the fourth author is a white, cisgender, queer, tenure-track assistant professor. As queer, white individuals with a range of privileged identities, we acknowledge that both our initiative and this article risk further centering normative white perceptions and experiences of queerness. As both members of the QU leadership team and authors of this article, we sought to self-reflexively consider how our positionality might influence the grant implementation and evaluation process.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Quinn Hafen

Quinn Hafen is a PhD student at Colorado State University. They seek to advance social work practice by pushing the institute of academia away from the status quo and toward justice and equity. In their work, Quinn aims to be reflective of how their positionality has influenced the research questions they ask and the conclusions they draw. They strive to interrogate their whiteness in the context of the continual reproduction of white supremacy within the field of social work.

Shiloh Dailey

Shiloh Dailey is an MPH/MSW dual degree student at Colorado State University. They are passionate about health equity in LGBTQIA  populations and dismantling systems of oppression that negatively influence health outcomes for marginalized people and communities.

Jordan Brooks

Jordan Brooks is an instructor in the School of Social Work at Colorado State University. He focuses on anti-oppressive practices in teaching and creating a sense of safety for his students. His work centers around queer affirmative social work and different conceptualizations of mental health. Prior to joining the School of Social Work, he was a counselor at the Colorado State University Health Network.

Jennifer Currin-McCulloch

Dr. Jen Currin-McCulloch is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Colorado State University, and Lab Director of the Serious Illness and End-of-Life Narratives Research Lab. Her practice and research focus on enhancing the psychosocial quality of life among individuals and families facing cancer and other life-limiting illnesses. She worked for two decades as an oncology and palliative care social worker in hospital, hospice, and nonprofit healthcare settings. Her work with both pediatric and adult populations uncovered glaring disparities in access to healthcare and mental health services for young adults with advanced cancer. She received the Doctoral Training Grant from The American Cancer Society to fund her dissertation research exploring the meaning and function of hope among young adults with advanced cancer. This research revealed several targets for interventions aimed at reducing despair, anxiety, depression, dissociation, and social isolation among young adults with advanced cancer. She also employs mixed methods to investigate the existential quality of life; identity development amidst life-limiting illness; health communication preferences at the end-of-life; and the impact of social determinants of health on physical and psychosocial functioning.