The Pride Collective is UFV’s LGBTQ+ club that focuses on creating a safe and welcoming space for all students, regardless of sexuality, gender identity, race, or age. The club was recently reestablished in the fall of 2021, when current Pride Collective president, Roxy Granikovas, took over.
Granikovas said, “The club is all about promoting inclusivity on campus and providing a safe space for LGBTQIA+ identifying folks and allies.” The club is open to students, staff, and alumni.
In early September, Pride Collective hosted its first event of the semester, Sidewalk Chalk and Chill. Granikovas explained, “We collaborated with [the Student Union Society] and our topic was ‘what does inclusivity on campus mean to you?’ We had a bubble machine, and were giving away T-shirts, lanyards, stickers, as well as providing folks with more information about our club, and everyone was encouraged to come out and participate, and write on the sidewalk outside of the [Student Union Building].” They continued, “We had a really great turn out and a lot of lovely words were written.”
The Pride Collective is collaborating with the Campus Recreation team to host weekly gender inclusive basketball sessions. The basketball games will be hosted every Thursday in Building E from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. In addition to the basketball games, a second collaboration has been formed to start a new weekly event, Inclusive Movement, that will start at 4:00 p.m. on Thursdays and lead up to the basketball games.
Granikovas said, “I’m really passionate about mental health as well as physical health, so collaborating with Campus Rec has been really important to me personally. Just giving folks that opportunity to come out in a safe space and let them know that this is available to them because marginalized population folks haven’t had the same opportunities to participate in sports or sports teams as others or felt safe or included.”
In late October they will be hosting a Taylor Swift listening party. The event will be casual and have food to snack on while giving people a chance to socialize and bond over Taylor Swift.
In the works for spring 2023 is a Queer Prom. Granikovas described it as, “A queer prom will be an opportunity for folks to come out and dress up. A lot of folks didn’t have the opportunity to go to their prom because of COVID, or they never had a prom happen, or a lot of folks felt like they couldn’t go to prom with the people they wanted to go to prom with because of maybe not being out yet, or not feeling comfortable with doing so in high school or because of their families.” They continued, “So this is an opportunity for folks to redo prom or have prom for the first time.”
The Pride Collective is always open to everyone and endeavors to be a safe space. To get involved and keep up to date on all their events, connect on the Pride Collective Facebook, Instagram, Discord, or shoot an email to prideufv@gmail.com for more information.
Emmaline is working on her BA and ambitions to become an English teacher. They always say, those who cannot do, teach. She spends her free time buying, reading, and hoarding books with the hope that one day she will have no furniture and instead only have piles of books.
