The Freedom Alliance and National Coming Out Day, October 11, 1995, Black-and-white contact sheet, 1995, 8 x 10 , University Photographs, University Archives, UARC 1997-19

The Freedom Alliance and National Coming Out Day, October 11, 1995, Black-and-white contact sheet, 1995, 8 x 10 , University Photographs, University Archives, UARC 1997-19

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.

Established in 1995, the Freedom Alliance is an active student organization on campus, serving as both an advocacy and social group for the LGBTQ communities at UMBC. They frequently sponsor movie nights, nationally known speakers, and well attended social events like Queer Prom. In 2007 the Freedom Alliance moved to a permanent office space in the University Center. This contact sheet shows images taken for The Retriever at a tabling event for National Coming Out Day in 1995. The grease pencil marks on the sheet show which images the photographer or newspaper editor selected for publication in the story about the event.

University Photographs

10/11/1995

contact sheets; gelatin silver prints; black-and-white photographs; 8 x 10 in.

UARC 1997-19