First Annual Lavender Celebration

First Annual Lavender Celebration

Although UMBC never had a segregated student body, whether by race or gender, our campus has struggled in many ways to increase its diversity of the student body. UMBC is now promoted as a diverse institution and this is part of the defining narrative of the school and a point of pride for many administrators, faculty, students, and alumni. UMBC has been recognized as having the second most diverse student body (Princeton Review, 2008) and as one of the top 25 most diverse national universities (U.S. News & World Report, 2012). What does a racially diverse student body mean at UMBC? During the 2014-2015 academic year, 44.2% of the student body self identified as white, 16.4% as African American or Black, 20% as Asian, 5.9% as Hispanic or Latino, and less than 1% self identified as American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander. Students that identify with two or more races made up 3.6% of the student body, while 4.8% did not self identify. International students were separated in this data and made up 4.6%. This data is distributed each year in several sources, including the annual Progress Report on Institutional Programs of Cultural Diversity, available through the Provost�s Office.

The first annual Lavender Celebration, honoring LGBTQ graduates and campus allies, was held on May 1, 2014 and was coordinated by the Office of Student Life's Mosaic: Center for Culture and Diversity. The Mosaic works within the Office of Student Life to promote and foster a community of diversity and acceptance on campus. In addition to honoring graduating students, honors are also awarded to departments and faculty/staff allies; the 2014 recipients were The Women�s Center, the department of Gender & Women�s Studies, and GWST professor Dr. Kate Drabinski. The Queer Camping & Leadership Retreat (Student Life) and the Spoken Word Comes Alive with Andrea Gibson (Freedom Alliance) were also recognized.

University Publications

5/1/2014

programs (documents); 8.5 x 5.5 in.

UPUB M9-003