Updates About Services, News & Resources for Alumni
Potash LGBTQ+ History Month Speaker Series
Each October the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Resource Center presents a calendar of events, programs and services in celebration of the historical and current lives and contributions of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) community.
The Potash LGBTQ+ History Month Speaker Series, a reoccurring annual initiative, will be a featured event of the month. The series, overall, will showcase the work and contributions of individuals who blend queer activism and scholarship that centers the experience of people from marginalized sexualities and genders. The series provides a venue for the SU community to learn and dialogue about LGBTQ+ historical, social, cultural and political issues. 2019 marks the inaugural year of the Potash LGBTQ+ History Month Speaker Series.
About Jordan Potash
The speaker series honors the contributions of Jordan Potash ’98, who, as an undergraduate student, wrote the original proposal to create and generate support for the resource center.
Potash is currently a distinguished art therapist and professor, with research and teaching specialties including advocacy, social change, and multiculturalism. He has had a strong background in multiculturalism and social change since his undergraduate years. From organizing a speak out on the quad and helping plan the 1998 SU Martin Luther King Jr Celebration, to creating art projects featuring students sharing coming out stories, Potash’s work as a psychology and art major blended scholarship and activism. He was also an orientation leader, resident advisor, and active member of the Jewish Student Union. He received the 1998 Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) Student Success La Fuerza Award for work that promotes the appreciation of racial and ethnic diversity.
The Potash LGBTQ+ History Month Speaker Series ensures the center continues to fulfill the vision Potash articulated during remarks for the LGBTQ+ Resource Center’s 15th Anniversary in 2016. The legacy of the center, he said, is to “transform suffering to hope, silence into voice, and marginalization into the community.” We welcome nominations for Potash Speaker Series artists. Please email lgbtq@syr.edu with nominations and bios for potential speakers.
Accepting Nominations for Lavender Graduation Alumni Speakers
In 2019 the LGBTQ+ Resource Center re-imagined what was formerly known as the Rainbow Banquet, which had been a tradition since 2003. Lavender Graduations are staples of LGBTQ+ offices nationwide. They celebrate LGBTQIA+ communities at Syracuse University, SUNY-ESF, and the city of Syracuse, featuring a dinner, a graduating keynote speaker, and graduating LGBTQA+ student recognition.
We simply seek alumni whose personal or professional story will lift our graduating students’ spirits and offer a welcome to the Orange alums community! We welcome nominations of LGBTQ+ identifying alumni from all years, majors, and disciplines. We take into account a large range of distinctions, honors, accomplishments, or potential when considering speakers. We will review all nominations received; we are particularly interested in centering the experiences and lives of queer & trans people of color and trans and non-binary alums. Email lgbtq@syr.edu with names and bios of possible LGBTQIA+ alumni speakers.
Previous Alumni Speakers
2019 – Olivia Fields ’01, founder and president of organizational change management firm, Change 360, delivered remarks entitles “Authentic Living: I Am Who I Say I Am,” on how she built on her SU education and experience to create her life and career today.
Join the Network of Forever Orange Alumni!
LGBTQ+ Advocates and Supporters Special Interest Group
Wherever you are, the Syracuse University Alumni Association is with you. From hosting events where you live to creating lifelong connections and providing career support, the SUAA keeps you in the Orange family—for life, including a LGBTQ+ community Affinity Group. Whether you joined a LGBTQ+ organization or discussion group, enrolled in the LGBTQ+ Learning Community or an LGBTQ+ Studies course, worked as student staff at the LGBTQ+ Resource Center or participated in LGBTQ+ events, this group is for you! Follow this link to find out more and to join this and other Special Interest Groups through ‘Cuse Community.
Wishing Goodbye to 750 Ostrom Ave
Our former house at 750 Ostrom Avenue has been demolished to make room for our ever-expanding campus community and facilities. It served as our home for 18 years before the center was relocated to 548 Bird Library, and then, as of January 2021, to our new permanent home at 132 Schine Student Center. The LGBTQ+ Resource Center now shares office space with the Disability Cultural Center and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) Student Success, together forming Syracuse University’s Intercultural Collective.
Stay In Touch!
We seek to boost engagement from alumni and friends who hold or care about LGBTQIA+ identities. There is great opportunity to develop initiatives such as an alumni newsletter, regional alumni affinity groups, networking and career assistance, and support for the LGBTQ+ Studies program. For more information about how you can be involved, please contact lgbtq@syr.edu.
Listserv
This group is for former students, faculty, staff and alumni of Syracuse University who identify within the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Queer/Questioning, Asexual community. To join our listserv: send the message “SUBSCRIBE LGBTQALUMNI” to listserv@listserv.syr.edu.