EDWARDSVILLE - Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Safe Zone participated in the 37th annual St. Louis PrideFest parade Sunday, June 26. For the fourth consecutive year, a large group of faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends marched along with 170 floats, bands and other parade entries in the 10-block route on Market St.
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“The Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion has supported the participation of this event, because at SIUE we live our values of inclusion and citizenship,” said Venessa Brown, PhD, associate chancellor and chief diversity officer at SIUE. “The booth and parade have been great opportunities for us to come together as a community and to share that SIUE is a welcoming and safe place for all our students, faculty and staff.
Before the parade began, there was a commemoration near City Hall for the 49 people who were murdered in the Pulse club in Orlando on June 12. Forty-nine representatives stood in Market St. and each held the name of a victim and an American flag.
Safe Zone’s mission at SIUE is to develop a campus community of allies and provide support to LGBT students, faculty and staff with the ultimate goal of developing SIUE as a safe and welcoming place for LGBT people.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville provides students with a high quality, affordable education that prepares them for successful careers and lives of purpose. Built on the foundation of a broad-based liberal education, and enhanced by hands-on research and real-world experiences, the academic preparation SIUE students receive equips them to thrive in the global marketplace and make our communities better places to live. Situated on 2,660 acres of beautiful woodland atop the bluffs overlooking the natural beauty of the Mississippi River’s rich bottomland and only a short drive from downtown St. Louis, the SIUE campus is home to a diverse student body of more than 14,000.
