Hello, hello, hello, stupendous listeners. This is Out Loud in the Library: A Durham Tech Library podcast. I'm your host, Courtney Bippley, reference librarian extraordinaire, and my pronouns are she/her. Today's library updates are that we have published a roundup of all of our Black History Month reading recommendations on our blog. I've linked to it in the show notes. So go check it out. We will be doing a similar set of recommendations for Women's History Month, which is March, so keep an eye out for those on our social media accounts. All the Black History Month and Women's History Month recommendations will be available on the Libby app through the Dogwood Digital Library. Have you checked out any ebooks or audiobooks through the app yet? It's so easy and so nice. A preview for you podcast listeners is that for Women's History Month I will be recommending All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis edited by Ayana, Elizabeth Johnson and Katherine Wilkinson. Y'all, this book changed my life. Sometimes people say that and they're exaggerating, but I am not. It turned how I think about climate change and society and my own role in the problem and solutions on its head. I'm writing a blog post about how much I love this book, so make sure you subscribe to our blog to read it later this week. As a reminder, the library has webcams and headsets to check out so if you find yourself in need of these tools, you can borrow them. Today's interview is with Cooper Pollock, pronouns are he/him. He's here to talk about Durham Tech SPECTRUM Club. SPECTRUM stands for sexuality, pride, educate, connect, trust, respect, unity, multiplicity. The club's mission is to advocate for and support the needs of Durham Tech's LGBTQ+ community members. This club seems awesome. And if you're an LGBTQ+ student or ally out there listening, let Cooper's pitch persuade you to join.
Hi, Cooper, thank you so much for joining me today. Tell me a little bit about yourself.
I'm in my first year drum tech second semester. So I've done all my schooling online. And I plan on going into law school in DC one day, where I hope to become a senator or a congressman. I also play guitar as well. I'm not very good at it. But I try. Because it's fun.
I think it's important to enjoy things you're not necessarily good at.
Yes.
I myself like to dance, and no one would say that I'm really good at it. So tell me about spectrum club. What is it?
Spectrum club is like an LGBT+ inclusive club that works to educate people on the LGBT community and how to be a supportive ally. We also do advocacy work for the community as well. It's also a safe place for you to come and just kind of be yourself and relax on campus. And that's one of the big things we strive for is that safe space, we do a number of different things. We do community service, volunteer work, sometimes you just kind of chill and talk and be supportive. We also work with community partners occasionally to further serve the LGBT community.
That's all really good work. What activities does the club have planned for the rest of the semester?
So we're kind of bouncing back and forth on that. We feel like it's really important to stay social and engaged, especially during this pandemic. So you have really good communication. So we have weekly Tuesday meetings to catch up with each other in this kind of talk and discuss different things. We're working on a, we did a cookie Bake Off recently, and we're going to do another one soon. So it's this time it's like St. Patrick's Day theme. So your cookie or baked good supposed to be like green, or spring or like St. Patrick's Day themed, along the lines of that.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah. So last time we did it, we had people like cook the recipes, and then like pictures of them making the cookies and the cookies. It was really fun.
That's really awesome.
Yeah. And then we also have like a movie night planned to watch over Zoom or something like that. I have also got a game night. So I don't particularly want to, like, spoil everything I'm doing in it. But I have some fun games picked out that I think will work really well virtually can be a lot of fun.
You guys are really active, despite the circumstances. That's incredible. I guess that kind of speaks to my next question, which is how has the club adapted to the COVID-19 restrictions?
So I wasn't in the club before COVID-19. So I got some outside input on this. But since March, we've had some meet, those weekly meetings. So it's my understanding that only one or two weeks were skipped when we transitioned virtually.
Oh, wow, that's really good.
Yeah. And so to make the club more accessible, they created a nice website that's on the SGA page. Some of our members continue to volunteer individually. We also do some virtual volunteer work. We're also like trying to do a lot with social media. We created like some videos promoting like voter registration and whatnot. We also work with community partners like the Wake Tech Full Spectrum Club and Equality NC, to support each other during COVID And what that looks like. We were also connected via Discord before the pandemic so that so that switch the virtual was not as challenging as it could have been.
You guys use Discord. That's awesome.
Yes, that's our main way of connecting with each other.
I've been on and it works. It works pretty well.
It's a good platform
When you joined the club, how did you hear about it? What made you want to join?
I was actually doing an assignment for my ACA class. And I saw the club on the Durham Tech website and I looked into it explored the website, and I just kind of reached out and went from there. What made me want to join was it was my first semester, and I didn't really know anybody. And we're also online, so it's harder to make friends. So I thought that a club was a perfect way to start that social interaction.
That's awesome that you were able to reach out to other people during this like really stressful time where it's even harder to make friends than it usually is. Because you can't see people so much. So I'm so happy that your club is still a place for that. Who is eligible to join the club?
Any student can join the club, but they have to be mindful and supportive of the LGBT community and strive to keep that safe space that we've created.
And I assume you have like a list of rules and stuff like that to create that safe space?
Yeah, yeah.
Awesome. If someone is considering joining the club, what is your pitch to convince them?
So this is what I would do. Everyone in the club is really nice and understanding and it's such a great safe space that I value highly and the weekly meetings are one of the highlights of my week. The club has really low pressure and just there to help and serve you. So if you're really looking for that social interaction or somewhere to start your journey on campus, this is a really good place to do that.
It sounds like it, for sure. How would someone get in touch with the club? Through social media, or I assume you have to be invited to the Discord channel?
You do have to be invited to the Discord on but you can reach out to Doreen McKinnon. I just call her Dr. Mac, you can also go to the Durham Tech website and through that you should be able to access our website and reached out through there. We also have an Instagram which gets checked pretty regularly.
That's cool. What is the club most looking forward to doing when the pandemic ends?
So I talked to everybody about this and the general consensus that everybody's just kind of feeling, like, zoom burnt out and we're really tired of this internet and not real face to face connection. So it sounds like we're just looking to get back together face to face is what people are really looking forward to. I'm personally just looking forward to just meeting everybody in person and having you know that company, study, or or do other activities.
We are all looking forward to face to face interaction again, I know I am. So I I definitely understand that. What was the last book you read?
I actually love reading. I try to read at least 30 minutes a day. So the last book I read was I Have Something to Tell You by Chasten Buttigieg. I'm really into those political memoirs like and books of that nature. So it was a really good book, in my opinion.
Awesome. So you like nonfiction more than fiction or are you half and half?
I definitely like nonfiction better, but I don't mind a good fiction read either.
Do you gravitate towards certain time periods or certain celebrity memoirs? Political memoirs, foodie memoirs?
Yeah, I definitely gravitate to political memoirs. So my next read is The Promised Land by Barack Obama.
Our library has that. just putting that out there.
I heard that. I've heard that it's a good book. So I'm really looking forward to that.
I've heard that too. I have not read it yet. But I did listen to Becoming, Michelle Obama's book. And that was excellent. And she read it herself and did a really good job.
Yeah, I read that. I want to say last year it was it was really good.
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you again to Cooper Pollack for coming on the podcast to talk about the SPECTRUM Club. I've linked to the club's website in the show notes, so definitely check it out. The resources page has some great links and information like how to request a name change at Durham Tech, how faculty and staff can support LGBTQ+ students, and a link called gender unicorn that is both adorable and informative of the differences between gender identity, gender expression, sexuality and sex assigned at birth. Cooper read, I Have Something to Tell You: A Memoir by Chasten Buttigieg. This book is available through interlibrary loan and I've linked to the form to request it in the show notes. If you are listening and wondering what Discord is I've also linked to an article about that platform in the show notes. It's a lot like text based chat rooms and message boards used to be but with updated bells and whistles. I hope you have a stupendous day!