Graduate Students

Welcome graduate students to the UC San Diego LGBT Resource Center. Our Center serves all constituents of the UC San Diego community, including and especially our graduate students.

Organizations

The Queer Graduate Student Association was created to build community for graduate students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and other marginalized identities (LGBTQIA+) https://studentorg.ucsd.edu/Home/Details/9600

Grad oSTEM @ UCSD
Grad oSTEM @ UCSD is a community where LGBTQIA+ graduate and professional students can gather and support each other personally and professionally, fostering an inclusive environment on campus. We host monthly events for members, such as the Reading Rainbow book club and trivia nights, as well as events open to the public like our monthly Scientific Queers United in Academic Discourse (SQUAD) seminar where we celebrate the work of LGBTQIA+ individuals in STEM. Learn more and get involved at gradostem.ucsd.edu! 

The mission of LGBTQ-PhaM is to forge community among LGBTQ individuals, foster professional relationships for LGBTQ students and allies, and confront LGBTQ health disparities through education and advocacy https://meded.ucsd.edu/index.cfm/groups/lgbtq

The mission of QuIPS is to foster community among queer and non-queer members of the School and raise awareness of the unique challenges faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people around the world, as well as professional development for queer students and allies. https://gps.ucsd.edu/students/student-groups.html#QuIPS

Queer@Scripps is a group for queer-identifying students, staff, postdocs, researchers, faculty, and alumni at Scripps to connect, share resources, and be in community with each other. We host monthly informal meet-ups and plan events throughout the year  https://scripps.ucsd.edu/queersio

The Network-RadyQ provides a supportive community, social networking resources and professional mentorship for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer-identified) students and allies at Rady School of Management, UCSD. https://rady.ucsd.edu/people/students/clubs/network-rady/

Primarily graduate students, post-doc scholars and other queer scholars in San Diego County, the QSS was founded at UC San Diego and still has much of its membership from our grad community.  Find out how to get involved at https://www.queersciencesociety.org

Queer Graduate Students in Computer Science and Engineering (QICSE)
QICSE is a graduate student organization in the Computer Science and Engineering department at UC San Diego. We aim to foster a community within the department that supports gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, questioning, or queer grad students and their allies through networking and social events, and by working with other DEI efforts on campus.  Our mailing list is accessible at qicse-g@ucsd.edu

Events 

Throughout the year there is programming through the Dialogues in Sexuality Studies series which targets graduate students, as well as programs offered through the Teaching + Learning Commons, and the quarterly Diversity Dinners coordinated through the Office of Graduate Studies and the Campus Community Centers. The Graduate Student Association is also actively involved in the life of graduate students, and many of the activities and events hosted by the Vice President of Diversity and the Cultural Events Coordinator connect our community together.

The end of each academic year brings us to Rainbow Graduation, the first Saturday in June. This event is particularly powerful for graduate students who are completing their formal academic training, receiving terminal degrees, and moving on from UC San Diego. We encourage you to participate in Rainbow Graduation, as we are very proud of the years of commitment and study it requires to graduate from UC San Diego! Reach out to our email for more information and to get on the list for this year's Rainbow Graduation.

Your Center and Being Involved

Our space is open to all constituents, although we know from our statistics that the majority of the folks who use our space on a daily basis are undergraduate students. However, our second largest category is graduate students, so we encourage you to make the Resource Center your own! Some graduate students who are TAs hold office hours in our Heritage Room, which can be reserved for such, just contact our Programs & Operations Coordinator. Others stop by to use our kitchen, the gender neutral restroom, or just to get away from the lab, office, or cubicle! Informal study groups sometimes gather in our conference room and occasionally professors will teach small graduate seminars in the space. That being said, there are many reason to come by!

Graduate students are some of the most vulnerable in terms of harassment and discrimination due to their position between both undergraduates and PIs, committee chairs, labs, or departments. Graduate students may be especially susceptible to discrimination because of the power dynamic that comes from having a single adviser who determines most aspects of life/career while in school! This is particularly true for our transgender graduate students and I encourage you to read about our specific FAQs regarding transgender information at UC San Diego. Please know that the LGBT Resource Center serves to support and advocate for you if anything of these things happen, and can make referrals to the numerous resources available to you, including the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, the Ombuds Office, CARE at the Sexual Assault Resource Center, the Dean of Graduate Studies and other Graduate Deans (Pharmacy, Business, Engineering, Biology, Oceanography, etc.), Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and other resources both on and off campus.

Staying Connected

The weekly Rainbow Newsletter highlights all of our activities and events. It is the easiest way to know what is going on at the LGBT Resource Center. If there is more the UC San Diego LGBT Resource Center can do to support you as a graduate student, we would be delighted to connect with you. One on one conversations happen frequently by coming to our space, and the professional staff is available by appointment.