The 2010s through Present
In 2010 the LGBTQ Student Center opens with volunteer coordination from the LBGT Studies program. That same year Dr. Dolores Noll received the first-ever Diversity Trailblazer Award at Kent State University. The Grand opening of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Queer and Questioning Student Center Thursday, March 11, 2010.
Following that in 2011 the introduction to LGBT Studies is offered online. Also within the year Akron P-FLAG Scholarship for LGBTQ Students minoring in LGBT Studies is established. The LGBTQ Student Emergency Fund is also established in 2011 to assist LGBTQ students who have been cut off from familial support. In the late fall of 2011, Pride! Kent marked its 40th year of continuous existence (under a variety of names) at Kent State University, one of the oldest gay rights student organizations on the country.
In 2012, three LGBT Studies affiliates (Drs. Molly Merryman and David Purcell of Sociology and Cara Gilenbach, head of Special Collections) received a $24,000 Collaborative Research Incentive Award for their project “Examining LGBTQ Neighborhoods.” As a result of the grant, the program has its first graduate research assistant for one year.
The LGBTQ Student Center established a full-time coordinator’s position in 2012 which is held by Roxie Patton as the first ever coordinator of the Center until 2014. 2012 saw the first even Kent State University Lavender Graduation Ceremony take place.
In the summer of 2014 the International Gay Games is hosted in Cleveland for the 9thannual games. Highland Lives, the documentary developed from Akron pilot study of the Ohio LGBTQ Neighborhoods project is displayed at two events at the International Gay Games.
Then in 2014 the LGBTQ+ Student Center establishes a full-time director’s position and selects Ken Ditlevson as the first director of the center.