September 2008 Meeting

Posted on September 16, 2008 by kyle

We met last Wednesday (10 September) – here are the highlights:

  • Melissa reported that the Involvement Opportunity Fair was a success (I know, I was there!). There was a lot of interest in learning about the task force and attending the Safe Zone trainings.
  • Mary Beth went through a mock Safe Zone training for the group. The first training session will be 23 September (next week!) over the lunch hour (12-1 PM) in the UC, room 261.
  • Kate Clinton is coming to Whitewater – Young Auditorium, 23 October at 7:30 PM. Questions? Contact Ken Kohberger (kohbergk@uww.edu).

You can also read the full minutes (PDF) if you’d like.

In Susie’s absence, Melissa graciously took minutes – thanks Melissa!

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LGBT Youth & Suicide

Posted on August 26, 2008 by kyle

A number of studies have been done with regard to the prevalence of suicide amongst LGBT youth when compared to their heterosexual counterparts, which may suggest that LGBT youth are more prone to ending their own lives prematurely.1

The Greater Chicago/Illinois Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is hosting a free webinar about the issue next Thursday (4 September) from 7:30-8:45 PM. From the organization’s website:

Suicide Risk & Prevention Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenter, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Youth, presented by Dr. Brian Mustanski, Asst. Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry at University of Illinois at Chicago. This webinar will describe research on suicide risk among LGBTQ, report on new findings on the role of family and peer support in promoting mental health of LGBTQ youth and will provide practical advice on what you can do to help support LGBTQ youth in your family and community. There is no charge to participate in this webinar, however connection lines are limited and pre-registration is required by emailing Illinois@afsp.org.

1 I did a little research in Academic Search Premier through the library and found an interesting article about the media misconstruing study results. It was published in the Journal of LGBT Health Research and is titled Contested Conclusions: Claims That Can (and Cannot) Be Made from the Current Research on Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Teen Suicide Attempts. Although the article is not available through our electronic subscriptions, the article was part of the sample issue (PDF) made available on the publisher’s website.

Thanks to Jill for the information!

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Taking the Show on the Road

Posted on August 22, 2008 by kyle

It’s official – summer is almost over. I know, major sad face. How do I know that summer is almost over? Fall Orientation begins in three days. Yikes.

And what would fall orientation be without the Involvement Opportunity Fair? On Tuesday (26 August) at 9 AM in the Kachel Center, the Task Force will be present, spreading the word about what we do and to promote upcoming events, like the Safe Zone training.

Hopefully you’ll be attending the Chancellor’s State of the University Address – so come a little early and say hi to Melissa and Kyle (that’s me!).

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August 2008 Meeting

Posted on August 20, 2008 by kyle

One of the purposes of the blog is to be able to let everyone know what we’re up to. Because of that, it just makes sense to put the agendas and minutes from our meetings up. I know, it’s a novel concept.

We met last Wednesday (13 August) – here are the highlights:

  • Kim and Eric met with Chancellor Telfer and he thinks we’re doing a great job (score for us!).
  • A committee, with representatives from various departments and formed by Chancellor Telfer, will investigate campus response to any incidents of hate and how to proceed.
  • Sonya has gotten the ball rolling on the PB Poorman Achievement Award, which will recognize a student and their efforts to promote LGBT equality.
  • We went over the Safe Zone training agenda and set dates (September 23, October 29 and December 4) – look for more on that later.
  • Melissa and Kyle will be at the Involvement Opportunity Fair to let people know about us and what we do.

You can also read the full minutes (PDF) if you’d like.

As always, thanks to Susie for taking the minutes!

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Where’s this guy’s priorities?

Posted on August 19, 2008 by kyle

So we missed a familiar face at our meeting last week. And he’s not going to be at the next meeting. Supposedly he has this good excuse to not be there – something about being in Beijing or whatever.

That’s right – Eric Barber, co-chair of the task force, will be in China to compete in the 2008 Paralympic Games with the US men’s wheelchair basketball team! That’s right – he’ll be over there until the middle of September going for gold. We wish him, along with the other athletes (including several UWW alums and students), the best of luck!

If you’d like to stay on top of the latest happenings with the team, two wheelchair basketball fans have started a blog and will be keeping this side of the world in the loop – 2008 Paralympics USA Wheelchair Basketball.

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