From President Hsu: Celebrating Our LGBTQ+ Community

College of Charleston President Andrew T. Hsu shared the following message with the campus community on Friday, Sept. 24, 2021, regarding Charleston Pride Week:

Dear Campus Community:

This year, Charleston Pride Week (September 25 – October 2) leads into LGBTQ+ History Month in October. I encourage everyone to take this moment to reflect on and celebrate the many achievements of the LGBTQ+ members of our campus community and beyond.

By recognizing and honoring our LGBTQ+ students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends, we ensure that our campus is welcoming and inclusive to all, and we truly live up to our shared value of integrity by treating others with respect and acknowledging their contributions to our campus culture and institutional history.

Each year, the College builds programming and events around LGBTQ+ issues and themes throughout the campus experience, and I want to especially commend the hard work of our Division of Student Affairs, the Gender & Sexuality Equity Center, our Women’s and Gender Studies Program and student-led organizations such as Prism.

Our campus is comprised of many different people – different races, different ethnicities, different ages, different backgrounds, different religions, different sexual orientations and different identities. We have a great deal to learn from one another. It is in that diversity that we find strength as a university community.

When we listen and learn from those that our different from ourselves, we find common ground and discover that we are all connected and that we all belong. I am proud that our campus provides a safe space for all people to be themselves, to find themselves and to make a home here.

Please join me in celebrating and supporting our LGBTQ+ community during Charleston Pride Week as well as next month and throughout the year!

Best,

Andrew

Andrew T. Hsu, Ph.D.
President
College of Charleston