To heck with the closet; MCCC’s Gay-Straight Alliance met in the Cellar.
Alliance members joined one another Sept. 18 in a meet-and-greet in the A building’s basement lounge, hoping to gain new members.
“Being a two-year college, it’s difficult to keep students,” said Penny Bodell, GSA advisor.
“Sometimes (students are) only here for a semester, sometimes they’re only here one day a week, sometimes they leave after a year.
“We only had two returning members from last year,” Bodell said.
To combat that, attendees wore nametags and got to know each other during the meet-and-greet.
Additionally, the several-dozen people present were asked to fill out a brief questionnaire, aimed at helping plan the group’s events for the year.
Founded in 2009, MCCC’s GSA didn’t have the advisory support it needed to flourish the first year.
Since it took off in earnest, it’s become a source of educational and social events, and an awareness group for the Monroe County community – not just the college members, Bodell said.
The GSA will meet several times over the next few weeks to form its executive committee, Bodell said.
Included on the committee are typical student-led positions such as president, secretary and treasurer.
“We’re meeting on a weekly basis until we have the executive committee formed,” Bodell said.
At least until then, the Gay-Straight Alliance plans to meet every other Tuesday, opposite the Student Government meetings.
MCCC’s Gay-Straight Alliance has an online presence for those interested at http://www.monroeccc.edu/gsa/.
Besides the website, the GSA is on Facebook.
“We’d like anyone and everyone to join,” added Bodell.