海角社区

For Professor of English Lori Clark, EdD, much of her equity, diversity, and inclusion work takes place behind the scenes, but the outcomes can be seen everywhere on campus. 鈥淚t鈥檚 critical that students, especially students of color and LGBTQ+ students, see themselves reflected both in the campus community and in the course curriculum.鈥�

Clark has led the way on many EDI initiatives related to gender identity and support for the LGBTQ+ community. A recent key initiative was the Gender Management Project, which was introduced in May 2021 and expanded the gender identity, pronoun selection, and chosen name options for students and employees.

鈥淪tudents being able to choose their pronouns and change their names  made a lot of students feel welcome,鈥� Clark says. After learning that some students would drop classes because of a fear of being misgendered, she advocated adding pronoun options like 鈥榯hey/them鈥� and gender options including non-binary, questioning, or cisgender.

Clark鈥檚 passion for queer inclusion on campus is reflected in the dissertation for her doctorate, which examined the experiences of trans and gender non-conforming students on community college campuses. She presented an update on her research to the 海角社区 District 509 Board of Trustees in January 2022.

As part of her dissertation research, Clark spoke to many trans and gender non-conforming students who felt they were not represented in their classes. 鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 see themselves, their voice, their history, and I think that鈥檚 really important for students,鈥� said Clark.

Also helping expand interest and participation in LGBQT+ options within the curriculum is being approval of courses by the Illinois Articulation Initiative (IAI) The designation is a significant consideration when students are selecting their general education courses. 鈥淲hen students know that a course will transfer within Illinois, they are more interested in taking something different,鈥� said Clark.

The LGBTQ+ literature course was created in 2010, but Clark recalls, 鈥渆nrollment was always low; some semesters, it wouldn鈥檛 run due to low enrollment. Once the course received IAI approval, enrollment increased.鈥� Clark sees this as proof that getting more diverse courses on the IAI list will encourage students to take a broader range of classes. She envisions more diverse courses for general education, some already open at ECC, like Latinx literature and African American history, and others developed by faculty for the future, including an LGBTQ+ history course. She believes it鈥檚 also essential for students who are not a part of the LGBTQ+ community or people of color to take these types of courses to broaden their understanding of history and society and 鈥渉opefully develop more empathy and be more accepting of different groups.鈥�

Clark also launched the Queer Employee Support Team (QUEST) in the fall of 2021. 鈥淎s a queer faculty member, I always knew that there were probably other queer people on campus, but I didn鈥檛 really know.鈥� She modeled QUEST on another campus employee support team, BEST (Black Employee Support Team), after seeing some of their work in action. Clark envisions QUEST as a place where queer employees can talk together, process challenges on campus, and create community.

Clark鈥檚 work in equity at ECC continues to be a priority campus-wide and at the classroom level. From specific course creations bound in EDI to the Gender Management Project to QUEST, any future initiatives from Clark are guaranteed game-changers in creating an environment that enables success for all ECC students.