Meramec’s QSU looks for a new beginning.
By: Jools Pulcher, Art & Life Editor
Last April, one club made waves on the Meramec campus with a sponsored Drag Show which took place in the Meramec Theatre. This club was Meramec’s own Queer Student Union. The Queer Student Union, otherwise know by it’s acronym QSU, is a student led club designed to create community for students who are LGBT+.
In addition to this, the club has organized efforts to host events and efforts which raise awareness for LGBT causes and improve the campus overall.
Due to scheduling differences and personal challenges, the club was left leaderless and it ceased to exist. That was until several students began searching for it again toward the end of last semester.
Club Representatives Eileen Kalota and Frank Willmeno, along with other club representatives joining them this semester, are spearheading the revival of QSU.
According to Willmeno, he and his fellow representatives are restarting QSU for multiple reasons. “We want to restart the club because there is still a lot of interest there. Plus, when I was a part of it last semester, we had some well attended events like the Drag Show and our meetings were pretty well attended as well. And I also didn’t want QSU to end in the first place,” Willmeno said.
According to Kalota, there are several things QSU needs to achieve, beyond simply declaring itself a club again, before it can officially be revived. “We want to get it restarted again, and to have regular meetings. We want to be able to advance the club but we can’t do that until the club is active again,” Kalota said. “There are certain things we need to do in order to be able to do that. We need to have a list of people who will be attending meetings as active members and we need a constitution, which we already have.”
Once QSU has what it needs to become active again, the club has several more events in mind for the upcoming semester. According to Willmeno, the club hopes to bring back the drag show during this semester though “this time we are going to get new performers. They will be just as good as the previous performers.” The club also hopes to host a free screening for HIV and STD’s for Valentine’s Day and Dating Violence Education and Sex Education Panels. QSU’s meetings will be Wednesdays from 2-4:30 p.m, with a location for those meetings TBA.
