The Student Equity and Engagement Center will be hosting its first Student Diversity Coffee Hour on Tuesday, Sept. 13, from 11 a.m. to noon. With coffee, tea and snacks to be provided, students are encouraged to gather at 3001 Hedgcock, the SEEC office, for an hour of relaxation and conversation. 

Miranda Miller, a fourth-year elementary education major, is one of the SEEC employees who helped organize the event. While she hopes to provide a comfortable space for conversation, Miller also encourages those with different perspectives or unique issues to join in discussions with their peers.

“[Student Diversity Coffee Hour] will be a safe and comfortable space for anyone across campus to come and just have a space to talk and meet friends,” Miller said. “We are also looking for our more marginalized students to come and talk about any issues around campus or resources they have found.”

In an attempt to generate collaborative discussions on topics such as identity, student well-being and social justice, Student Diversity Coffee Hour will be providing an open forum for students of all backgrounds to discuss their feelings and struggles. 

Hailee Richards, a social work graduate student, is an employee at the SEEC and has helped coordinate the coffee hour event. She hopes to give those that may not feel as if they have a voice a place where they can share openly and without judgment.

“We basically just want to give everyone a voice and a place where they can talk about things that are going on on campus,” Richards said. “It can be as formal or as informal as you want…you can talk about a wide variety of things or something that you are really struggling with.”

More information regarding the Student Diversity Coffee Hour, including a complete schedule for the semester, can be found on the Hub.