Rainbow Co. struggles to stay alive

At the beginning of the 2017-2018 year, Rainbow Coalition (Rainbow Co.), Pacific University’s LGBTQ club, had more than ten members who regularly attended meetings and a full executive board. At the start of the 2018-2019 year, it contained merely its president.

“We still don’t know what happened,” Rainbow Co. President Jason Heredia said.

After the beginning of the 2017-2018 year, attendance of Rainbow Co. meetings suddenly plummeted, according to Heredia. The club met less consistently as the year went on until it stopped meeting entirely and Heredia found themself without any fellow executive members at the start of the 2018-2019 year.

In response to their situation, Heredia planned an advertising blitz, hoping to bring in awareness for both the club and the situation it was stuck in. They set up a Twitter and Instagram page for Rainbow Co., started using a new logo created for a sticker contest last year by student Charlie Kerns, printed and sent out posters, tabled at Club Fair with new secretary Geneva Diepenheim and purchased a square at the Sidewalk Chalk Festival.

It did not work as well as Heredia had hoped. By the time of the meeting, their Instagram page had five followers and their Twitter page had none. The posters did not make it up in residence halls as planned, according to Heredia, and were only posted in the University Center. One student showed to the club’s first meeting.

“I had hoped that it would pay off, but it just didn’t,” Heredia said. “We still had people emailing us asking when and where the meetings were going to be.” Heredia said.

Raibow Co. plans to run a poll to elect new officers and to determine a new meeting time for the club among the few people who contacted them through email.

Heredia, who will be a senior next year, worries that without officers to run it, Rainbow Coalition may disappear.

“I really don’t know what the future of Rainbow Co. will look like without officers,” they said. “Without support from members or the public, there’s no reason for us to be here.”