Hey EWU, where’s the Pride in that?

Editor’s note: Nearly one year ago, we started digging into the case of what happened to Vanessa Delgado , a key official in Eastern Washington University’s Multicultural and Pride Centers. We followed along as there was exodus of employees from those departments that followed Delgado’s termination and subsequent nondisclosure clause in her severance letter that prevented her from speaking about her experience and spoke with students who feared for the future of DEI at the university as it undertook a Strategic Resource Allocation process. Recently, Judy Rohrer, a professor at EWU, came to us with an op-ed that we feel is an important update to the saga.

June was Pride month and many of us have been celebrating the fierceness and fabulousness of our queer communities.  We welcome the support and solidarity of straight allies and accomplices.  At the same time, we saw many corporations and institutions wrapping themselves in rainbow flags in pinkwashing marketing campaigns .  It seems Eastern Washington University (EWU) may be following this path.

Over the past three years EWU has undermined 2SLGBTQ+ academic and student support programs/centers.  The university has fired or lost — and is not replacing — key people who did the work of teaching about, and creating, LGBTQ+ inclusion on campus.

During Pride month last year, with no forewarning and without good explanation, EWU fired Vanessa Delgado , the queer Latinx Director of Student Equity and Inclusion Services who had also served as inaugural director of the Multicultural Center and Pride Center.  Delgado was known for her strong support and outspoken advocacy for QTBIPOC, first gen and immigrant students.  At the end of the school year, when few students were on campus, the out-going VP of Student Affairs had Delgado escorted out of her office building. Where’s the Pride in that?

Soon after Delgado was fired, Dr. Nick Franco resigned .  Franco was Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Delgado’s direct supervisor.  They were on vacation and completely in the dark when Delgado was unceremoniously terminated.  Franco, one of Eastern’s only queer POC employees to hold an executive position, had also served for many years as the director of the Pride Center.   Their resignation, along with Delgado’s termination, leaves enormous holes that marginalized students keep falling into. Where’s the Pride in that?

Along with the seriously diminished Multicultural and Pride Centers, EWU has been without a Women’s or Gender Equity Center for two years – in other words, since the Dobbs decision hit.  As part of the Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies (GWSS) program, the Women’s & Gender Education (WAGE) Center had successfully filled this role since 1977.  WAGE ran events on sexual and gender violence, an Activist in Residence program every winter quarter, an annual women’s & gender expansive student leadership symposium, emergency funding for student parents, and so much more.

Since the departure of the previous manager, the GWSS program has requested permission to hire a new qualified WAGE Center Manager three times, to no avail.  Despite the critical importance of the position, administration has balked at hiring someone with a Master’s degree and offering a competitive salary.  With no permanent staff for over two years, WAGE exists in name only. Where’s the Pride in that?

Additionally, GWSS has been requesting permission to hire a replacement for our one other staff position since October 2021.  That person would coordinate our academic program and help with student recruitment, but that hire continues to be denied.  Out of sheer frustration, we hired a former student last summer to conduct a pilot project doing outreach to youth groups in Eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana.

In a mere forty hours, this former student gathered information from over 140 groups serving young women, gender-nonconforming, and LGBTQIA+ youth interested in networking and learning more about Eastern’s GWSS program.  Yet, despite this obvious need, and in a time when women, pregnant people , and gender expansive youth are under hateful attack in the region, Eastern’s leadership refuses to allow us to hire someone to do this critical work. Where’s the Pride in that?

Since 2019, Eastern’s GWSS program has offered the first, and still only, Sexuality and Queer Studies (SQS) minor in the region.  The minor offers students an interdisciplinary course of study focused on the histories, experiences, contributions, activism, and community-based knowledges of LGBTQ+ people.  Some of the first to graduate with the minor were the mother of a gay son, a transgender student and a straight Spokane therapist wanting to better serve the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

Along with the other GWSS degree programs, this minor is under threat because of under-resourcing.  GWSS has not only lost its two staff positions, we’ve also lost a full-time faculty member during the pandemic.  Even though interest in the SQS minor has increased, and even though a faculty task force called for increased investment in the program, administration has rejected our requests for a replacement faculty hire. Where’s the Pride in that?

This year, Eastern’s contingent in Spokane’s Pride parade was considerably smaller than usual.  Executive leadership paid for EWU Pride shirts sporting the assertion, “Ally is a Verb.”  Given the above actions by leadership and the significantly diminished state of LGBTQ+ programs at the university, this begs the question, were the shirts appropriative or aspirational?  In other words, is there Pride in that?

Judy Rohrer (she/her) is an interdisciplinary scholar-activist and director of Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies (GWSS) at Eastern Washington University.  For more information, see her professional website .

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