BY MARTA TAHJA-SYRETT
After the long awaited move from the Library Building, the Student Equity and Arts Lounge (SEAL) is now located in a naturally-lit room on the third floor of the College Activities Building. The SEAL celebrated its grand opening on Oct. 4. I met with Samuel Silvestro, the peer coordinator for Transgender Support and Resources at the SEAL. We discussed events and activities connected to the space in addition to its role on campus.
What is the purpose that the SEAL serves?
“Well it’s not only a meeting and gathering space in general for students that maybe don’t have the easiest time navigating academia, or maybe, academia doesn’t feel cut out for them. We prioritize minoritized students and it’s also a really great place where intersections meet So because of our merging with the Trans and Queer center and also the First People’s Multicultural Advising, we’re really just like intersectionality, kind of personified right now It’s a really great space for people to access multiple parts of their identities.”
What kind of activities and events are associated with the Student Equity and Arts Lounge?
“So we have weekly events, like Monday nights we have someone from the QuaSR Quantitative and Symbolic Reasoning Center We have a tutoring time. There is an Unlearning White Supremacy Group that happens every week. There’s specific groups for both women and men of color We have identity-based groups and then we also have just different things that pop up. We have T4T4Tea which is a gender-blending mixer It’s for trans and gender non-conforming students and it’s tea-party themed If they’re students of color, queer and trans students, both of course, that have ideas they could come to us and we can help make events happen.”
The QuaSR, a tutoring center on campus, is devoted to helping students in subjects such as economics, general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, mathematics, biology, and statistics. Their mission is “to promote retention and equitable outcomes across gender, race, socioeconomic status and background in science and mathematics.”
Can you describe the merging of the Trans and Queer Center and the Multicultural Center?
“I know that the Trans and Queer Center just started a couple years ago and that the First People’s presence here has been almost since the college has started, starting with the Non-White Coalition, in I think the late sixties and the early seventies. And then there was the Third-World Coalition and then just with the way that academic language around race politics and stuff like that was changed it became the Multicultural Advising Center, and then First People’s. So there’s been all this development in both parts of campus in terms of support for students of color, and then trans and queer students. With this merging, we’re trying to recognize the benefit that could happen from these inclusive spaces, from these intersectional spaces. They’re important reasons that those offices were separate for a long time. Commitment to equity, actual equity — I think this space is just really on the forefront of that.”
What do you think is valuable about having this resource available to people at Evergreen?
“Oh, it’s huge. I moved to Olympia eight years ago and didn’t become a student until two years ago but knowing that there was a center on campus that even just had the name ‘trans’ in it is huge. And talking with new students during orientation week and people being like, ‘I’ve never seen so many people that are out’— I mean even just the visibility is huge I think having a space where people can just be comfortable, do homework, relax, seek resources. We have like herbal teas for stress time and all that stuff If you just need a snack, if you just need to see someone that mirrors your experience because that can be hard to find sometimes in collegiate settings. And then there’s like fun stuff too like when we’re having a tea party or food-based events. We’re going to have a ballot party just trying to make community engagement fun, too. So it’s just a good space for what I said: community organizing, community building, personal identity development.”
I saw on the web-page that the Lounge offers workshops and I was just was wondering what kind of topics will be discussed at the workshops?
“So it really is up to depending on who wants to do the workshops. I know the students that work here who were being encouraged to put on workshops. I was talking about doing a harm-reduction one, kind of like a harm-reduction 101, like what is harm-reduction, how does that apply not only in this space but in our communities at large. People were talking about doing just different kinds of skill-shares, whether it be art or computer stuff. Tonight there is actually going to be a grad school workshop on how to intern to grad school and how to apply and do all that gnarly leg work So it’s kind of all over the gamut Some stuff is more political, some stuff is skill-based The options are really kind of limitless.”
Why did you choose to accept this position?
“Well I think as a non-traditional student being able to plug in on campus felt hard for me at first, even in a place that is pretty liberal and diverse like Evergreen Then I never even knew that the Trans and Queer Center really existed because it was kind of tucked away and I didn’t come to campus during their normal business hours because I’m an evening and weekend student When I heard that the merger was happening and then that there was student positions available I just was thrilled because I have a background in community organizing and working with trans and queer youth and just doing a lot of kinds of community-orientiented work
It just seemed like such a cool place to be able to work and have that opportunity as a student to work with other trans students Things like that and to be able to offer support and resources Even though Olympia is a really resourced place it can be hard to know where to find those resources and I have a lot of experience navigating that on my own, and it’s just a cool experience to be able to offer that to maybe younger students that haven’t lived here for ten years and haven’t been trans for ten years and just need a little extra support I was really excited to do that and then to also interface with other faculty and administration just to keep pushing for more and more equity on campus. It’s been great to see the changes with more non-gendered bathrooms or gender-inclusive bathrooms, whatever terminology you want to use. … I’ve seen that change in eight years since living here and it’s easier for me to pee on campus because of it. If I can keep that momentum going for future gender non-conforming students, that just made it seem like the dreamiest job ever.”
