Faculty Council Committee Corner: LGBTQ+
Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing CU Connections series in which the Faculty Council highlights each of its committees and their efforts. See past installments here.
The Faculty Council LGBTQ+ Committee is charged with considering concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender faculty, including: (1) assessing the cultural climate of the university as it pertains to opportunities for LGBTQ+ faculty for academic advancement, productivity and appropriate compensation; (2) making recommendations for creating an academic environment that fosters the academic success of LGBTQ+ faculty; (3) working to assure fairness in the recruitment and retention of LGBTQ+ faculty; and (4) developing support networks and recommending policy to address the needs of LGBTQ+ faculty.
Over the past several years, the LGBTQ+ Committee has advocated for and achieved inclusion of transgender-health-related services in university insurance coverage, coordinated CU’s sponsorship of and representation in Denver’s PrideFest, and co-hosted intersectional symposia in collaboration with the Committee for Racial and Ethnic Equity.
The committee would like to announce its upcoming spring symposium on May 22, 2023, at UCCS. Save the date for “Queer Futures and Higher Education in the Rocky Mountain West” and look for a call for proposals next month.
The CU Queer Futures Conference seeks to provide a forum for LGBTQ+ and allied, faculty, staff and students to network and share their research and creative work through intentional intra-campus collaboration.
In this moment of post-pandemic adaptation and political tension, LGBTQ+ identified people and their allies face daunting challenges in the classroom, in their communities and in their areas of work, advocacy and research.
This one-day conference will empower participants with current best-practices to support LGBTQ+ life in the CU system and showcase the CU system’s contributions to art, science, social science, business, education, medicine, performance, athletics and innovation from its LGBTQ+ and allied stakeholders. At the heart of this conference will be an emphasis on building a queer inclusive, supportive and energized future.
The committee also would like to remind everyone of this year’s Transgender Awareness Week (Nov. 14-20) and the Transgender Day of Remembrance/Resilience on Sunday, Nov. 20. This day memorializes all transgender and nonbinary individuals killed each year due to violent transphobia and emphasizes the strength of trans and gender-nonconforming communities of color.
Out Boulder County has information regarding Sunday’s Transgender Day of Remembrance at https://www.outboulder.org/events/transgender-day-of-remembrance-2022. (More information about the Transgender Day of Resilience is at https://www.tdor.co/.)
Committee Members (2022-2023)
Ed Cannon, Co-Chair, CU Denver | edward.cannon@ucdenver.edu
Troyann Gentile, Co-Chair, CU Denver | troyann.gentile@ucdenver.edu
George Bayuga, Secretary, UCCS | gbayuga@uccs.edu
Carey Candrian, CU Anschutz
Larry Eames, UCCS
Sean Iwamoto, CU Anschutz
Sandy Ho, UCCS
Marie Hoerner, UCCS
Robert Hill, CU Boulder
Lisa Flores, CU Boulder
Steven Frost, CU Boulder
Katherine Mohrman, CU Denver
Morgan Seamont, CU Boulder