Atkins Library is pleased to announce the recent acquisition of new materials documenting the history of Campus Pride, a Charlotte-based organization that is celebrating twenty years of promoting the safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ students on college campuses throughout the country.
Founded in the fall of 2001, Campus Pride is the only national nonprofit organization supporting student leaders and campus groups working to create a safer college environment for LGBTQ+ students. Its leadership and support programs provide resources and help to develop future LGBTQ+ and ally student leaders.
The Campus Pride collection, located in Special Collections and University Archives, includes organizational records such as reports that rank colleges on their level of LGBTQ+ friendliness, survival guides, and Campus Leadership Institute programs. It also contains items related to the Lambda 10 Project, a national clearinghouse of educational resources related to sexual identity and gender expression for LGBTQ+ fraternity and sorority members.
The collection also includes student essays on their experiences in fraternities and sororities as well as manuscripts of Executive Director Shane Windmeyer’s books, Out on Fraternity Row: Personal Accounts of Being Gay in a College Fraternity and Secret Sisters: Stories of Being Lesbian & Bisexual in a College Sorority. Finally, the Campus Pride records also include publications from the Human Rights Campaign and the Pocket Rocket Guide (Charlotte’s pocket-sized gay guide), audiovisual recordings, and memorabilia, such as a gay Jewish flag and an “Erase Hate” wristband.
Campus Pride has played a major role in improving the experience of LGBTQ+ students on college campuses over the past 20 years by helping to build a culture of inclusivity and respect while calling out and protesting discrimination wherever it is found. We thank Windmeyer, one of the founders of the organization, for these recent additions to this valuable collection and wish Campus Pride many more years of success. Please see the Campus Pride Records finding aid for a full description and guide to the collection.
-- Andrew Pack