Editor’s note: This week, the Stater will be profiling some of the student minority groups on campus. This is not an all-inclusive list. Read tomorrow’s Stater to learn about SALSA’s plans for the semester.

PRIDE!Kent, Kent State’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group, is offering heterosexual students an executive seat within the organization.

Establishing a new “allies chair” this semester, PRIDE!Kent hopes the position will help connect the organization with the straight community and make sure students know they can be a member of PRIDE!Kent even if they are heterosexual. The new chair became available after PRIDE!Kent amended its constitution in Fall 2005.

“Basically we just want to get a straight student on board,” said programming chair Carrie Wicks.

PRIDE!Kent will also be looking to expand its transgender awareness this year.

“We have had a transgender candlelight vigil but haven’t really covered transgender much in the past,” Wicks said. “We may do a transgender week.”

PRIDE!Kent held a candlelight vigil last November as part of National Transgender Day of Remembrance. The day honors those who have died as a victim of transgender hatred or prejudice.

Craig Snell, PRIDE!Kent’s secretary, says he is hopeful the organization can continue doing everything it has done in the past, but better.

“Hopefully we can bring a speaker for AIDS Day,” Snell said. “Awareness is always a goal.”

Contact minority affairs reporter David Yochum at [email protected].