Kia Ora, Talofa Lava, Malo e lelei, and GLBT-WXYZ Greetings to all.
My name is Kurt and I am your straight Acting Queer Officer at VUWSA, which for you newbies is your (that’s right all yours) Student’s Association. I am temporarily filling in this position on the VUWSA executive until a by-election complete with pledge cards, spending-caps and hopefully some secret recordings chooses your new queer officer – democracy ain’t it a wonderful thing?
As your current Queer Officer, I am here to act as a representative and advocate for queer students at Victoria University. Fighting, alongside a host of crazy sidekicks, homophobia and transphobia on campus, as well as working towards improved access, equity and support for queer students. I work closely with the Rep Group for queer students, the ever-amazing UniQ, which is a queer social/support group for all the cool queer kids and their friends. UniQ was out in the quad all Clubs Week signing up queer students and their friends. If you missed their fabulous stall but are keen to get involved in their movie nights, tea parties, pride week and all the other great events they organise then sign up to the mailing list by emailing uniq@vuwsa.org.nz (STOP READING AND DO THIS NOW).
One service which is coordinated between VUWSA, UniQ and the University Counselling Service is the Queer Mentoring Programme. The Mentoring Programme is available for any student who is coming out, embracing a new sexual identity, is a sexual-non-conformist, or is unsure of their sexual identity. Participants are matched up with an appropriate mentor, who can act as a role model and as someone who is comfortable with themselves, share experiences of their own and help participants make sense of their situation. If you think you would like to sign up to this service or would like to learn more email me at queer.officer@vuwsa.org.nz.
If there is any other issues or problems that you would like to talk to me about feel free to email me or arrange a meeting at the VUWSA office on the ground floor of the Student Union Building. Hope you have a great start to the year enjoying the orientation events, and make sure you get involved in club and rep groups on campus.