Co-chair of Diversity Affairs for SA resigns due to event

Dear editor,

I am resigning as Co-chair of Diversity Affairs for Student Association because of “Cuse Can.”

From the second I knew any sort of event was happening, I fought with our president to have queer representation from our resource center in the planning of this event. After being promised that queer voices would be included, it was apparent I had been lied to when I was met with an insincere apology and a concert poster with Pusha T on it.

It takes one Google search to see why a queer person would be displeased to see that Pusha T is coming to campus, especially when the event is budgeted to cost $242,000 and is being marketed as a diversity event. Student organizations are begging for crumbs from SA while our president and vice president are able to irresponsibly distribute disgusting amounts of money with little to no consequences or limitations.

This kind of “oversight” is the exact reason we don’t see a lot of queer representation (especially trans) in SA. SA wants all of our unpaid labor and then comes back around and slaps us in the face.

Months ago, I was told that Diversity Affairs needed to host a panel for an event that SA was doing. My Co-Chair and I came back with the idea to do, “Why are there two Frat Rows and they’re both white? An open dialogue about the lack of spaces for marginalized students on campus.” Our vice president didn’t want us to do this panel and urged us to go with something more general. We refused to change our idea and didn’t know they went ahead and changed it anyway until we saw the poster on Instagram.

Being the only trans individual in all of SA, I am now being forced to either stay in this position and support an overtly queerphobic event, or resign. It frustrates me that I spent all of my time in this position advocating for queer people, countless hour working in the office, on initiatives, and with cabinet, and now all of this work is for nothing. More wasted queer labor.

As I’ve save said before (and I still stand by this) SA is incredibly oppressive and corrupt. However, there are many people in SA doing amazing work, and I’m optimistic that in the future, SA could be something great. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Quincy Nolan

Former Co-Chair of Diversity Affairs