UNC Story Archive recording with Jonathan "Jon" Curtis: The Story of Us2 items
Date Deposited: 2021-12-17
Collection: UNC Story Archive (70096)
Collection Number: 70096
Finding Aid: https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/70096/
During a remote recording session, Jonathan “Jon” Curtis, former Associate Director for Student Activities and Student Organizations at Carolina (1986-2012), shares the joys and challenges of supporting diverse communities of students on campus. Curtis says how he found the Student Union “was a place that made me feel at home” and “for an LGBTQ... Read more
During a remote recording session, Jonathan “Jon” Curtis, former Associate Director for Student Activities and Student Organizations at Carolina (1986-2012), shares the joys and challenges of supporting diverse communities of students on campus. Curtis says how he found the Student Union “was a place that made me feel at home” and “for an LGBTQ person, I found that the atmosphere at a union was a welcoming one, was one that embraced differences of gender, of sexuality, of race, of faith, disability". During his time at UNC, Curtis saw “a lot of different things come out of the union”, including the Black Cultural Center (now the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History) and the Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association (CGLA), then the campus’ LGBTQ student organization. Curtis explains how Student Congress made things "pretty unpleasant with minority groups, and the CGLA was one of the most fiercely attacked” and on a National Coming Out Day during the 1990s students in The Pit were attacked with “a terrifically childish demonstration by one of the conservative groups”. Despite the challenges and some personal attacks, Curtis “feel[s] privileged to have seen the changes I saw during my years there, and I hope in some small way that some of what I did there was a lasting positive effect with the students, not just then but through their lives”.Read less