Skip to main content

K-State Shutters Spectrum Center

The latest decision in a long line capitulating to conservative politics, Kansas State University has announced the closing of the Spectrum Center. Founded in 2010 as the LGBT Resource Center, the Spectrum Center has served as a resource for LGBTQ+ students, sponsoring events, providing education and building community.
Notice of closure poseted next to a whiteboard on the door of the Spectrum Center welcoming students
Image Credit: KSNT 27 News

The latest decision in a long line capitulating to conservative politics, Kansas State University has announced the closing of the Spectrum Center. Founded in 2010 as the LGBT Resource Center, the Spectrum Center has served as a resource for LGBTQ+ students, sponsoring events, providing education and building community.

While K-State and its Student Governing Association have consistently underfunded LGBTQ+ resources on campus, the decision to gut the Spectrum Center came seemingly out of the blue in a digital letter on July 23 from Thomas Lane, the vice president for academic success and student affairs. Dr. Lane writes with “thoughtful consideration and deep respect for the community,” an incredibly hollow sentiment given the institution’s track record of avoiding or silencing progressive politics and critically underfunding important student resources while skyrocketing tuition rates over the last two decades.

This is an update in our continuing coverage of Kansas State University’s rollback on DEIB programs. Stay tuned to the Weekly Rose for further updates on Kansas universities.

Edited by Jack Shaw

Comments

More from The Weekly Rose

Lawrence Community Says No ICE!

Hundreds of people packed the sidewalks at Ninth and Massachusetts Street on Sunday afternoon, turning downtown Lawrence into a roar of chants calling for justice for Renee Good and an end to ICE violence.

Bread and Roses Press Celebrates Grand Opening of New Space at ECM

The international radical publishing house has more than doubled their floor space in their new two-room storefront at an acclaimed local community justice center

Leaked Messages Reveal How Electoralism is Reshaping the Kansas DSA

Over the last decade, growing unrest in the U.S. has been repeatedly channeled into Democratic Party campaigns that promise change while preserving capitalist rule. In Kansas DSA, the Socialist Majority Caucus has advanced an electoral strategy that absorbs mass anger into safe institutional channels, leaving little behind in the way of durable working-class power.

Built Different: Conservativism Shrinks Your Moral Sphere

We all agree bad things are wrong. The leaders of the conservative movement don't thing anything ought to be done about it. The fundamental differences in thought between conservatives and the left provides us all the more reason to act.

Hear the Students! We Rally With UAKU!

Unionization is the natural conclusion when an administration igrnores Shared Governance. A university that doesn’t respect its workers cannot respect its students. A university that doesn’t invest in sustainability cannot claim to care about our future.

A Win for Materialism

This guest opinon piece is an academic analysis of materialism and a critique of the root causes that underlie gun violence. It explores the conditions that make vigilante justice inevitable. It does not endorce them.