When Weinberg freshman Holly Simon first arrived on campus, the Rainbow Bonfire was one of the first places they formed friendships.
From meeting another student when they lost their way to the Lakefill to talking to other students at the event, Simon said the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center welcomed her to Northwestern. After Wildcat Welcome, Simon continued to seek support from the GSRC, including with making their first resume. Simon said she also found community and received support from the Women’s Center, especially while watching the 2024 presidential election.
Just hanging out in either of the offices’ physical locations, Simon said, made her feel “safe” and “welcomed” on campus.
“I’ve gotten to know people there who are in vastly different majors, who are in just totally different walks of life,” Simon said. “Because we were in designated queer-affirming, women-affirming places together, we were able to build not just activist connections, but also social and friendship connections.”
Now, Simon said they worry about how incoming students will learn about these spaces.
The GSRC and Women’s Center are two of the offices whose websites were removed in February and March in response to an executive order President Donald Trump signed Feb. 14. The order, entitled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” directed institutions, such as universities, to close their DEI-related programs.
The links that once led to NU’s inclusion-focused offices’ websites now redirect to a site entitled “Community and Belonging at Northwestern.”
Although the individual websites are down, these offices are still hosting events and providing services in person. The GSRC will host its next Queer Book Club discussion on April 14.
Simon said without direct online access to this information, it’s harder to refer other students to these services.
“The on-the-ground operations aren’t being much affected by the removal of the websites, except that now they don’t have a way to share their operations,” Simon said.
The Women’s Center, Center for Civic Engagement and Native American and Indigenous Affairs were also grouped under the new Office of Community Enrichment, directed by Assistant Provost for Community Enrichment Michelle Manno.
“The Office of Community Enrichment is rooted in the University’s guiding principles and priorities,” University Provost Kathleen Hagerty said in a Feb. 12 news release. “Michelle’s leadership experience and natural talents for bringing people together will help us build a new office for promoting community across Northwestern’s campuses.”
OCE will focus on three areas — education, connection and advocacy — according to the release.
Manno was previously the assistant provost for diversity and inclusion. In the news release, Manno said she is “thrilled” to be the associate provost for OCE and that “cultivating an enriched community is going to be a collective effort.”
Student Enrichment Services, which provides resources for first generation and low-income students, also had its website removed.
Weinberg freshman Jacqueline Martinez said the loss of the SES website came as a surprise to members of the community it serves.
“When I first opened the website, I was just like, ‘Wait, this is real?’” Martinez said.
In the past, Martinez said she checked the SES site about twice a quarter to access the Student Activities Assistance Fund link, so the University could cover the costs of her rugby equipment. When she rushed a sorority, SES “took the pressure off” of paying new member fees.
Martinez said following the website removal, students used a group chat to help others find the SES services they needed, and someone sent her the SAAF link directly.
“I feel like our communities have been more supportive within each other, because we understand that the resources at Northwestern that we used to have accessible, aren’t as accessible,” Martinez said.
Simon said the information that once was housed on the Women’s Center and GSRC websites still exists. They said a graduate student created a link to an archived version of the websites that was distributed over social media when the official pages were first removed.
Still, Simon said they are sad that information about these offices is not as easily accessible as it was when she first arrived on campus.
“(The GSRC and Women’s Center are) both living archives about how to navigate Northwestern as a queer student or as a woman or as a gender queer person,” Simon said. “Those resources are gone now because the University didn’t care enough about them to keep them up.”
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the name of the Office of Community Enrichment. The Daily regrets this error.
Email: l.newsom@dailynorthwestern.com
Bluesky: @aknewsom.bsky.social
Related Stories:
— Northwestern removes Women’s Center website amid Trump’s anti-DEI orders
— Student Enrichment Services follows other NU offices in removing DEI site
— Office for Research follows other Northwestern websites in taking down DEI page
