Faculty, Staff, Students Offer Support After H.B. 261

This story is published as part of U.S. Democracy Day and the Utah College Media Collaborative, a cross-campus project bringing together emerging journalists from Salt Lake Community College, the University of Utah, Utah State University and Utah Tech University.

On Jul. 1 of this year, the U closed several student resource centers. The shutdown of these centers was due to the anti-DEI bill H.B. 261, otherwise known as the “Equal Opportunities Initiative.” In response, students, faculty and staff at the U have pushed back and organized safe spaces of their own.

Response from the Academic Community

One of these groups is the Queer Alliance For Faculty and Staff (QUAFFS). QUAFFS is an official faculty affinity group under the U’s Office of Faculty, and has been up and running since Jan. 2023.

Lisa G. Aspinwall, professor of psychology and QUAFFS point person, spoke on how her perception of what the group would be doing changed in recent months.

“So originally, I thought this would be just a nice way to have coffee with people,” Aspinwall said. “When we thought about our mission statement, we included things like advocacy and consultation with the university about important events, but I thought we would be a social organization. It became clear to me over the many events of last year and this summer that we needed to take a more active role.”

Aspinwall added she works with the Disability Advocacy & Research Network(DARN) in addition to QUAFFS to fight back against H.B. 261.

“I realized that I had been spending all of my time doing advocacy out at national meetings to try to make our field a more welcoming and supportive place, but I had not been doing that locally on campus,” Aspinwall said. “I thought, ‘wait a minute, I do this for people I see once a year. We all think it’s great when I go home, and I never hear from them again. Maybe I should be more involved on my campus.’”

Aspinwall made a point to discuss how this isn’t a one-party issue. She wanted students to know that this is an issue for all underrepresented groups on campus.

“Many students have memberships across multiple of these groups. It’s not like, ‘here are the queer people and here’s everybody else,”’ Aspinwall said. “That’s just not what the reality is, and that’s not what our approach is. It’s not what students, faculty, or staff are. We are all concerned, and we are all working together to provide the opportunity for community building, networking, social events, having fun and making friends, all the things that the centers did that they can’t do anymore. There’s nothing in H.B. 261 that would have outlawed that.”

Student Pride Center

Another organization, fully run by student volunteers, is the Student Pride Center. This center is running out of the Marriott Library. It’s open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Student Pride Center is also administratively and financially separate from the U.

Ien Zielinski, the founder and executive director of the Student Pride Center, discussed the center’s mission to support and advocate for LGBTQ students, faculty and staff.

“Our main goal is to support and advocate [for] and connect LGBTQ+ students, faculty and staff on campus,” Zielinski said. “All of our volunteers are trained in reporting situations of discrimination and harassment, walking people through the reporting process, and connecting people to resources, both on and off campus.”

This organization is built up of students, for the students, with a mission built around advocacy and inclusivity.

“A lot of our work surrounds building a more inclusive environment, advocating [to] university administration and thus the Utah Legislature at large,” Zielinski said. “We do partner events with the Utah Pride Center, our parent chapter, as well as other LGBTQ+ student organizations around campus.”

The Student Pride Center is having a kickoff celebration on Sept. 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. While the celebration’s location has not been released, Zielinski hopes to host it in Presidents’ Circle.

Independently Organized LGBTQ+ Pool Party

In the past, the LGBT Resource Center used to throw a pool party to kick off the fall semester. This year, a group of students have banded together to put on their own version of the pool party. Dylan Alden, a current undergraduate studying history, is organizing an LGBTQ+ Pool Party for students, staff and faculty. The party will be on Sept. 14 in the Student Life Center from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

“There are several groups, faculty, staff and students who are independently working and, in some cases, are making some really important partnerships to co-sponsor events to have fair and welcoming events that we all deserve,” Aspinwall said.

Kate Keith reported and wrote this story as a journalism student with The Daily Utah Chronicle at the University of Utah. Her article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.