Leadership quits Queer Student Union

By H. Thatcher and James Martinez//

Queer Student Union President Ella Rosenberg and Vice President Bella Bellucci have stepped down from their positions, making the club nonoperational. 

 The club’s final event was hosting the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” on Oct. 30. 

 “It was a combination of multiple things, having a really, really small executive board, just an overall decrease in interest in our club events,” Rosenberg said.  

Student-led clubs did not receive their budgets until mid-October this year, making it difficult to plan and host events. This difficulty influenced QSU’s decision to cut the Safe Sex Carnival this year, even though it has been a popular event on campus for many years now.  

“We were feeling that a lot of pressure was put on students to have that type of event where it’s educational for the whole campus, and it was literally just put on Bella and me to do that whole thing,” Rosenberg said.  

Rosenberg is advocating for there still to be something that resembles the resources that Safe Sex Carnival provided. 

No longer having a QSU on campus, “will definitely be a gap, but we are hoping that this will tell the school that they need to reflect on the support that they have for LGBTQIA+ students and that it shouldn’t just be on the Queer Student Union to advocate for the queer students, it should be a campus-wide thing,” Rosenberg

Dean of Students Demetrius Johnson was asked multiple times to comment on the closing of the club and said he didn’t know about the leadership’s decision to step down.  

QSU has struggled to attract attendance at its events in recent years.

“I do feel like our campus culture, as more years have gone by, is just going towards an apathetic type of community where people don’t really get as involved as they used to,” Rosenberg said.  

QSU will remain dormant until there is more support from both students and administration, Rosenberg said.  

“I would love for QSU to come back, but I wouldn’t recommend for anyone to pick it back up until there is a notable systemic change in the way the institution supports us and is run and who is running it,” Rosenberg said.

##