Nearly 25 percent of Northwestern’s campus self-identified as queer in ASG’s last analytics survey, but the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center only holds ten people. And that’s one of the only institutional spaces on campus for queer students. There are proposals in the works to expand it, but for many students, campus-sponsored spaces aren’t the best ways to be in community with other queer students — or aren’t even spaces that feel like theirs. New from Defining Safe: How do queer students at Northwestern navigate formal and informal spaces around campus?

Albert Chan, a social studies teacher at Niles North High School, teaches one of the only high school Asian American studies classes in the country. The class was finally approved in 2016, more than ten years after he first pitched it.

Following protests led by student group NU Community Not Cops, University President Morton Schapiro alleged that “Some of the instigators appear not to be Northwestern students at all, but rather outside activists” in an October 19 email sent to the Northwestern community. But what and who exactly is an outside agitator? Defining Safe took a close look at the history behind the trope to better understand it and contextualize it in relation to the recent protests in Evanston.

First-generation, low-income (FGLI) sophomores speak on their experiences with housing this fall. From Evans Scholars losing their on-campus housing to work-study job insecurity, many FGLI students believe that the University’s last minute housing cancellation was inequitable.

“This whole desire to throw off the structures of the system [...] that was repressive in so many different ways was in the air, and gay rights were a part of that.” In 1970, Maher Ahmad and Bill Dry founded the Gay Liberation Front — Northwestern’s first gay rights advocacy group. The group hosted the first gay dance on campus, held demonstrations in the city and boycotted bars that had racist policies. Just a few years later, Vince McCoy would become the first black president of the Gay Liberation Front. Fifty years later, the two men recount their time with the Gay Liberation Front in this two-part series. Part 2.

“This whole desire to throw off the structures of the system [...] that was repressive in so many different ways was in the air, and gay rights were a part of that.” In 1970, Maher Ahmad and Bill Dry founded the Gay Liberation Front — Northwestern’s first gay rights advocacy group. The group hosted the first gay dance on campus, held demonstrations in the city and boycotted bars that had racist policies. Just a few years later, Vince McCoy would become the first black president of the Gay Liberation Front. Fifty years later, the two men recount their time with the Gay Liberation Front in this two-part series. Part 1.

Samuel Maude was a “scared boy” freshman year of college. But now he’s a different person. As he leaves Northwestern behind, Maude is confident in his body, his sexuality and his future career.

“People were yelling ‘Run! Run!’ people saying, ‘I don’t deserve to die,’ there were people like just in so much shock they couldn’t even move. They were just having breakdowns in the streets.” SESP sophomore Jordan Walker shares her experience protesting against police brutality in Minneapolis since the killing of George Floyd. Defining Safe tracks the past two weeks in Minneapolis, looks at the Minneapolis Police Department’s history and talks to Minnesotan Northwestern students about their experiences.

Amid COVID-19, non-essential healthcare has been delayed, causing many transgender patients to lose access to gender-affirming care like hormone therapy, surgeries, and more. Defining Safe spoke to Northwestern students Sadd Sadd, Erique Zhang, and Michael Ann DeVito about their experiences with accessing gender-affirming healthcare during the pandemic. We also chatted with Dr. Kevin Hatfield, who has provided gender-affirming healthcare for decades and has one of the largest trans clienteles in his region.

For years, students at Northwestern have been pushing the university to reckon with its history and complicity in settler colonialism. One of their principal demands? A program in Native American and Indigenous Studies. This program is now set to launch as a minor in Weinberg.