UR Pride working hard
author: kristian ferguson | news editor
workin’ it out / jeremy davis
building more programming for regina
UR Pride is the university’s, and Regina’s, premier resource for organizing and facilitating programming for 2SLGBTQIAP+ people. The organization has had a lot going on recently with all of its regular programming in full swing, but it still has much that it is looking to accomplish.
UR Pride, working with a variety of groups including Hill Marketing Club, PRISM Improv, and Hill Business Development – Accounting Club, ‘Queer Eye for the Hill Guy’ is a program that is looking to “help both Hill and Levene Business students at the University of Regina to dress and act more professionally and to get them out of their comfort zone.”
The project is by nomination, either for yourself or for someone else, and the signup can be found on UR Pride’s Facebook page. Successful applicants can expect “knowledge on how to dress and act more professionally,” “learn some nice and easy recipes while on the go as a student,” and, most importantly, “be a part of a wonderful experience.”
Additionally, UR Pride is working with fYrefly Saskatchewan to bring a program called “Healing Through the Arts” that aims to “foster empowerment and strengthens your sense of identity through expressive arts.”
The program is completely free and is looking for participants who are willing to attend all of the programming over eight weeks. Registration info can be found on UR Pride’s Facebook page.
Camp Fyrefly, a summer camp for 2SLGBTQIAP+ kids in Saskatchewan, was also recently dropped by the university. The Faculty of Education, the faculty that was originally supporting Camp fYrefly, in a statement provided to CBC News stated that “To better address Faculty of Education students’ program needs while addressing workload pressures on support staff in the faculty.”
James McNinch, an organizer who helped Camp fYrefly start in Saskatchewan, said that the camp was valuable for rural or northern attendees as it might be “the very first opportunity for them to be surrounded by gender and sexually diverse individuals like themselves,” in a comment provided to CBC News. This was despite the program being featured prominently in a document showcasing the university’s giving as recently as last year.
UR Pride is also in talks to host the Canadian University Queer Services Conference [CUQSC] in 2020. In order for this event to happen, UR Pride is looking for people to sit in on a planning committee and, potentially, bring this conference to the city.
“If we can build a community of folks from across the country to participate in the planning of a conference, where we are all building space together rather than having one organization planning something, we think that we can have a successful iteration of CUQSC,” stated Jacq Brasseur, Executive Director of UR Pride, in a statement provided to CUQSC.
CUQSC describes itself as “an annual conference that brings together Two-Spirit, queer, trans, intersex, and allied university students and university queer services workers together to share knowledge, build knowledge, build networks, and work to end heterosexism, cissexism, transmisogyny, and transmisogynoir on Canadian university campuses.”
“The last CUQSC was held in Halifax, N.S., at Dalhousie University in 2016. Unfortunately, the conference has not taken place again since then. Generally, each conference is planned by an organization that is voted on by the previous conference’s attendees. Because the conference didn’t take place in 2017, no organization was voted to organize conferences in following years.”
UR Pride is looking to effectively resurrect the conference and hold its relaunch in the city alongside another event being organized by Fierte Pride at the same time.
