On Saturday, January 28, 2023, Saint Elizabeth University Honors Program ran SEU’s first student-founded academic conference —WREC: Women’s and LGBTQ+ Rights and Equality Conference. The conference ran from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Annunciation Center.

WREC was founded by honors student Thalia Gavilanes, ‘22, and organized by the SEU Honors Program. In her opening remarks, SEU Honors Director Nicole Yanoso, Ph.D., explained the driving purpose behind the conference.

“The conference seeks to highlight and unravel the inequities that still plague individuals due to gender and sexual orientation.” Dr. Yanoso said. “Moreover, this conference seeks to provide students from all backgrounds and all orientations access to competitive, academic experiences that once may have seemed out of reach.”

WREC featured 18 presenters—16 of which were students from SEU, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Kean University, and SUNY New Paltz. Presentation topics ranged from literary pieces (“Reading Among the Margins – Legitimizing the Works of Marginalized Writers”) to historical-sociological (“Linkage Blindness and Victimized Women – How Obstacles Prevent Effective Law Enforcement on and around Native American Reservations”).

The conference came about when Thalia presented her research on Ancient Egyptian Women at an academic showcase in October of 2021 and caught the attention of Gary Crosby, Ph.D., president of Saint Elizabeth University, as well as Anne Bartlett, Ph.D., provost and vice president of Academic Affairs and Student Life. Both President Crosby and Provost Bartlett encouraged Thaila to create a student-run conference.

The resulting day-long conference featured a keynote address by Bette Simmons, Ed.D., former vice president of Student Development and Enrollment at County College of Morris and currently interim vice president, plus four panel discussions of topics impacting women and LGBTQ+. For more information about the day’s conference, visit WREC 2023.

“The positive response to WREC has been overwhelming,” Yanoso said. “One of the participants shared that they were “‘glad WREC happened because representation matters’” with another adding this was a fantastic first conference. For a Catholic university to support the LGBTQ+ community was a great first step.’”

When asked if the conference will become an annual event, Yanoso added, “We hope so as today’s event helped establish a community of trust and openness making space for frank, open, sincere exchange of ideas. A majority of the 106 conference goers suggested this conference be annual.” In addition to SEU’s Honors Program, the event was co-sponsored by the University’s Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) program and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education for co-sponsoring the event.