Madeline Brooks
palmettoreport@gmail.com

(Rock Hill, S.C.) — Winthrop University’s only LGBTQ club, GLoBAL, is undergoing big changes, after all but two members of the executive board were let go last month because they were unable to perform their duties.

In previous semesters, the club had roughly 20-30 members, but this semester the numbers have declined to as few as eight people.

George Dib, a sociology major from York, said he has attended the GLoBAL meetings in the past but feels the content of recent meetings may have caused the decline.

“They would just teach us about LGBT stuff (this semester), like a class…it wasn’t really fun,” said Dib.

He said he also voiced concerns about not being able to get to know people in the club, because of the way the meetings were being run.

Now, Kalea Young-Gibson, secretary of the club, has decided to give the group a complete overhaul, hoping to address these issues and improve the club.

Young-Gibson, a junior political science and psychology major, said she agrees the club doesn’t need to be education-based.

“We are the members of the community, so we don’t necessarily need to be educated about who we are. So we’re going to move away from that approach,” she said.

Young-Gibson said the previous leadership suffered because board members were overwhelmed with schoolwork and personal matters.

Thus, she and Cody Chester, president of GLoBAL, decided to replace the other board members and totally rebrand the club. Young-Gibson said the departure of the former board members was amicable.

As the Council of Student Leaders (CSL) representative for GLoBAL and student safe zone coordinator, Young-Gibson has the ability to make changes to the club.

She said the meetings will shift away from being information-based toward a more fun, easygoing atmosphere.

“Definitely when you come in, we’re not going to be throwing facts at you,” said Young-Gibson. “We’re going to allow students, if they’re having troubles with their roommate, at home, with classes – this is also going to be a place where you can vocalize that, be heard and be validated.”

She also said future meetings would allow students to vocalize their personal struggles as LGBTQ youth on campus.

As GLoBAL rebrands itself, including plans to change the group’s name over the next semester, Young-Gibson said she hopes students give the club another chance.

“If you came before and you didn’t like what you experienced…definitely give us another shot, because we’re going to be doing things a lot differently.”