Between each of her classes at Utah Valley University — no matter how far away they were — Simone Goodheart seemed to always find herself walking back to her favorite spot on campus: the little lounge for LGBTQ students tucked inside the education building, Room 112.
Her feet carried her there sometimes without a thought, she joked. She remembers going there, too, back when it was “practically in a closet” in another building, with a couch that somehow managed to fit seven students at once, before the lounge was moved to the new spot in 2022.
Goodheart doesn’t know where she’ll go to find the same love, community and acceptance now that it is set to close at the end of the month — and all of the services that went along with it, under the umbrella of the Center For Intercultural Engagement.
“Without this space, for myself personally, I don’t know if I would be here,” said Goodheart, a trans woman, during a “solidarity gathering” of students Thursday.
UVU announced in an April 11 email to students that it was permanently closing the center and its affiliated programs for LGBTQ students, multicultural students and women.
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This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.
