Michael Dango, a founder of the faculty and staff group, teaches courses in English and media studies.

Professors Michael Dango and Lauren Herold began the LGBTQ+ affinity group to create a space within the college institution where friends and newcomers alike could come together under a shared identity to network and share experiences. Dango says that it’s important for a small institution like Beloit to have these alternative spaces to build connections across departments.

While Herold now works at Kenyon College as a visiting assistant professor of women’s and gender studies, Dango and other members of the Beloit staff and faculty, including Professor Joseph Derosier and Cherish Golden in admissions, continue to expand the project and cultivate a greater sense of community.

Cherish Golden values the genuine friendships she's built through the group.“It’s great to meet folks from beyond your office or department,” Dango says. The group builds a sense of community and belonging among LGBTQ+ folks, which is also important for retaining staff and faculty.

Golden agrees. “I think affinity groups are important,” she says. “We do a great job at supporting students, but staff and faculty need to be supported as well and our needs are different.”

The affinity group meets on the first Tuesday of every month, and members take turns sponsoring the meetings by sending out an email invite and providing snacks and beverages through the Provost’s Office. The meetings primarily serve as a social space where people have the opportunity to connect with one another and vent frustrations. Sometimes topics from the group’s listserv are brought up and discussed, or an event might be planned, such as a screening of Dracula through a queer lens or a staff and faculty trip to a drag show in Rockford.

Herold also organized Safe Zone facilitator training through the Safe Zone Project, which prepares staff and faculty members to interact with and support students who identify as LGBTQ+.

“[The project] allows us to think about the way that terms have evolved, to think about ways to be inclusive, and to think about ways to create safe spaces for students,” says Derosier, an assistant professor of French.

Professor Derosier says the affinity group has helped connect students to faculty and current Beloiters who can speak to the experience of being queer or trans on campus.

As Assistant Director of Admissions, Golden has found that the group has improved her ability to connect prospective students to faculty members and current students that can answer questions about LGBTQ+ support on campus.

“It’s [admissions’] job to bring students in and to also let them know that it’s not just getting you here, but it’s supporting you throughout your time at the college,” she says.

Dango hopes that similar affinity groups for staff and faculty will form in the future. “I think that affinity groups are important for the health of an institution,” he says, because at the end of the day, an institution like Beloit is the people that make it up.

“It’s been a really wonderful group,” Golden says, “and I will be very curious to see how it continues to expand or maybe how it’s used as guidance for future affinity groups that may be implemented on campus.”