Buff Allies is a program formed by WTAMU faculty and staff members to provide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students a supportive safe zone to discuss any issues they might have.
“[It provides] a safe place for the students to come talk about issues that they might not feel comfortable talking about just anywhere on campus,” Dr. Mo Cuevas, Social Work assistant professor and Buff Ally, said.
One of Buff Allies’ goals is to raise awareness of issues the LGBT community faces and to educate others.“I think it’s really important because I think on a campus that tends to be relatively conservative, students need some places where they know it is okay to express different views and different situations and talk about different lifestyles that might not be the norm,” Cuevas said.
Students can identify faculty and staff members as Buff Allies by a sticker located on the door.
“I do think WT for the most part is a supportive community,” Roxie Pranglin, Continuing Education assistant director and Buff Ally, said.
The students Cuevas have met with typically would go to her so they could get help figuring out what they wanted, how to deal with and how to talk to family members.
“They need an element of safety to express themselves about that because college age is traditionally when you are going through that identity development, and so you need to be able to experience it and talk about it and think through different ideas about it,” Cuevas said.
The program has gone through a tumultuous couple of years. It started up, lost momentum and was recently picked back up.
“I got involved several years ago and then the program kind of went away for a while and then it came back and I went to the training again,” Pranglin said.
Students in the Social Work program set up the training for participants last year. Members of Buff Allies go through training to better offer LGBT students understanding, support and advice.
“The Social Work program as whole picked it up and did some of the training for different groups that were interested,” Cuevas said.
Since then, many of the students involved have graduated, and the program is in danger of falling off the radar again.
“I think the momentum would be there if we picked it back up,” Cuevas said. “I don’t think it’s ready to die, but I think it needs somebody who can really get behind it and pull it together.”
There have been a couple of meetings about getting the program revived.
“I felt it was important to say that I support this endeavor,” Pranglin said.
Cuevas hopes to take part in pushing the program forward and motivating more faculty and staff to get involved and make Buff Allies a strong program on campus.
