BMCC Pride Alliance Receives $31K from CUNY-wide LGBTQIA+ Consortium

The Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY) Pride Alliance has been awarded $31,000 from the CUNY-wide LGBTQIA+ Consortium which in turn receives support from the LGBTQIA+ Caucus of the New York City Council and the Mayor’s office.

“We were actually granted funding above our proposal, which gives us a nice buffer,” says BMCC Academic Literacy and Linguistics Professor Brian Kelley. “Kathleen Dreyer, BMCC Chief Librarian, has volunteered to continue supervising the funding, and Health Education Professor Yuliya Shneyderman and I will coordinate and work with each project to make sure that the necessary paperwork is also processed.”

“BMCC serves students from diverse cultures and backgrounds who are sometimes unaware of, underserved by, or marginalized within their communities regarding LGBTQIA+ issues,” says BMCC Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. Marva Craig. “Grants from sources like the CUNY-wide LGBTQIA+ Consortium allow the college to expand its services, providing students with a safe space to learn and find acceptance for who they are.”

“The positive impact of this funding will be felt widely at our College,” says BMCC Associate Provost, Dr. Liesl B. Jones. “From speaker series, to enhanced SafeZone trainings, to support for our LGBTQIA+ oral histories project and more, this award from the CUNY-wide LGBTQIA+ Consortium will contribute to the sense of belonging created by our LGBTQIA+ communities on campus and reinforce the message that BMCC champions diversity and wants all students to thrive.”

Funding will enable expansion of  SafeZone trainings and more

Funded projects include BMCC’s SafeZone project, which trains community members to serve as allies for LGBTQIA+ students.

“We will be able to provide stipends for faculty trainers and to provide $250 to 10 faculty or staff members who would like to be trained to be their department or office ‘go to’ person as SafeZone agents through a new second-layer of SafeZone training,” says Professor Kelley. “The training would be two days, two hours per day in the Spring 2025 semester.”

The funding will also enable the Pride Alliance to provide stipends for guest speakers, which will enhance programming for Pride Month, BMCC’s Lavender Graduation and the BMCC Rainbow Panthers Club. There  will also be workshops on topics such as “Finding Your Style,” “Choosing a Name,” “Activism 101” and more.

The Queer Communities Faculty Interest Group (FIG) in the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Scholarship (CETLS), will be funded to sponsor its first keynote speaker, Dr. Lance Keene, who teaches in the NYU Silver School of Social Work and will discuss his research into the sexual and behavioral health of adolescent and young adult, sexual minority men of color.

Collaborative efforts including the BMCC LGBTQIA+ Oral History project will be supported

The new funding will support collaborative projects led by the BMCC Pride Alliance, as well as sustained projects, such as the Pride Mentoring Network and the BMCC LGBTQIA+ Oral History project.

BMCC Library staff member Erin A’Hearn will continue working with the LGBTQIA+ project on oral histories, Professor Kelley explains, and the funding will support stipends for five students as well as five staff or faculty members to provide oral histories related to LGBTQIA+ experiences at BMCC.

The BMCC Pride Alliance will collaborate with Jean Amaral, BMCC Open Knowledge Librarian, and the BMCC Open Educational Resources (OER) program to create a new professional development series and set of activities on what Professor Kelley describes as “restorative and joyful pedagogy” that will begin in the Spring 2025 semester.

Meanwhile, Professor Kelley says, “We will be able to continue building both our Pride Mentoring Network and our Pride Reading Group. We also have funds set aside specifically for the library to purchase new books or media.”

Guest speakers will receive stipends to interact with students in several academic departments

“We also have funds set aside for the Gender and Women’s Studies program in the Social Sciences, Human Services and Criminal Justice Department, to bring guest speakers or coordinate activities with their students,” says Professor Kelley.

“We have funds to provide speakers for the Music and Art, Ethnic and Race Studies, Academic Literacy and Linguistics and Modern Languages departments to bring speakers to campus for events regarding language and culture, as well as gender and sexual identities,” he says and adds that under separate funding, the Alliance is coordinating with Music Professor Quentin Angus and the Music and Art Department to bring musicians and artists to campus.

In addition, he says, the Pride Alliance is “very excited to now have funds in place for the BMCC Queer Crafts and Conversation group to bring to campus a guest speaker or offer students stipends for a project.”

“Overall, this CUNY LGBTQIA+ funding provides opportunities to expand our program, based on the infrastructure we put in place last year,” he says.

Members of the BMCC community who would like to involved in any of these projects can reach out to Professor Brian Kelley at bkelley@bmcc.cuny.edu or Professor Yuliya Shneyderman at yshneyderman@bmcc.cuny.edu.