Kia Ora,
I’m Atom Zonnevylle, and I prefer he/him pronouns. I’m taking Ecology and Biodiversity and I’m a Taurus. And I’m Kate Aschoff; I use she/her or they/them pronouns. I take Sociology, Political Science, and Theatre, and I’m a Cancer. This year, we’re the UniQ first year representatives. UniQ is the representative group for LGBTQIA+ students on campus. We hold weekly discussion meetings, movie nights, and advocate for student rights. The first year of uni is a pretty daunting time and it can be hard to find your footing in this new place. But if you’re LGBTQIA+ it can add a whole other level of complication, raising questions like: who is it safe to be out to? How much am I able to share? You also start to meet new people with ideals and values different from your own, which can be really difficult to deal with by yourself. But! We want you to know that you’re not alone, and that we’re both along for the ride with you!
As members of this university we deserve to struggle and stress during this year, just like everyone else, over things like deadlines and boring lectures, rather than struggling with others and ourselves about who we are.
If you are a first year student and find that you are experiencing issues related to being LGBTQIA+ at VUW, you can contact us for advocacy and/or support. This can include issues such as: deadnaming, general discrimination, issues with lecturers/tutorials/RA’s etc. Or, if you just wanna talk about RuPaul’s Drag Race, we’re here for you!
To contact us, flick us a message at either zonnevatom@myvuw.ac.nz or aschofkate@myvuw.ac.nz. If emailing isn’t your thing, you can find us in SU218 for UniQ’s Friday lunch space from 1.00–3.00pm. Also, make sure you hit us up at “UniQ Victoria” on Facebook for updates about everything we’ve got going on!