Wild and wonderful women in STEM p. 5
‘Love your uniqueness,’ WVU professor says
p. 3 The Daily Athenaeum
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Mountaineers to “show out” during Gold-Blue Game p. 10 danewsroom@mail.wvu.edu
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THURSDAY APRIL 11, 2019
New Morgantown organization to support LGBTQ community BY DOUGLAS SOULE EDITORINCHIEF When his daughter came out four years ago, Chris Mullett said he didn’t have anyone to talk to about how to support her. Now, he is part of an organization to help those in similar situations. “We want to educate, we want to advocate, we want to create a community where people are free to be who they are,” Mullett, the president of PFLAG Morgantown, said. “Without judgement, without stigma, without fear of violence.” On Tuesday evening at the Morgantown Church of the Brethren, PFLAG Morgantown held its first meeting since becoming an official organization. The organization “provides support and education to all parents, family, friends, and allies of LGBTQ+ people in the Morgantown, West Virginia area,” according to its Facebook page. “I want people to know that PFLAG is a safe place where gay and straight can come together and be community,” Mullett said. Two Democratic state delegates rep-
PHOTO BY KAYLA GAGNON
A rainbow cake at the Tuesday PFLAG Morgantown event.
PHOTO BY KAYLA GAGNON
Morgantown City Councilor Barry Wendell, Del. Barbara Fleischauer and Del. Danielle Walker sit at a table during the Tuesday PFLAG Morgantown event. resenting Monongalia County were at the meeting. Delegate Danielle Walker said because she’s the mother of someone who is gay, it’s personal. “We have to learn to change,” Walker
said. “The hate can only go if we’re allowed to educate our community, educate our own families.” Walker said she believed West Virginia was moving with the times. “Look at the people in this room,”
Walker said. “They are not hiding at home. They are not chatting amongst themselves through email. They are out in the community, in a church setting, saying, ‘This is who I am, take me as I am, and love me.’”
Delegate Barbara Fleischauer said this was her first time attending a PFLAG meeting. “For a lot of parents, it’s something that’s surprising that your child has changed from the way you thought they were,” Fleischauer, who has a daughter who is lesbian, said. “I want to have help in making sure that I’m there for my daughter when she needs me.” Fleischauer also felt that the state was moving forward on LGBTQ acceptance, but added, “I think we have a long ways to go, and it’s a learning process.”
WVU Board of Governors to vote on tuition Friday BY JOE SEVERINO NEWS EDITOR
The WVU Board of Governors will vote Friday morning on an unspecified tuition increase for the next academic year. First reported by the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the WVU BOG will vote in its regular meeting whether or not to raise tuition for the 20th consecutive year. WVU spokesman John Bolt, along with a few board members,
did not provide the proposed rates to the newspaper Monday or Tuesday. The DA reached out to the University on Wednesday for any additional information, but it did not provide further comment. In an interview with the DA in March, WVU President E. Gordon Gee said because the state legislature did not make cuts to higher education funding this year, he thinks if there are any tuition hikes at all, he expects the increases to be “very moderate” ones.
“I think with the stability of our budget, I think the expectation would be that if there is any, it will be very, very modest,” Gee said. Last year, WVU upped in-state tuition 5.7% after cuts were made to the state’s total higher education funding. Average tuition for West Virginia residents this year was $4,428 per semester and $12,475 per semester for out-ofstate students. The meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday at the Erickson Alumni Center.
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