Alora Hodgins said she wouldn’t trade her job for the world.
She’s the volunteer coordinator and staff lead at the Pride Center of Terre Haute. And when she’s not working, she’s earning a social work degree at Indiana State University.
“As a social work student, that's crucial to me, because I've been able to develop so many of those skills,” Hodgins said. “It's also crucial to the community.”
The Pride Center, which opened in 2021, offers social events, gender-affirming programs, hygiene resources, and mental health counseling, to name a few. Hodgins said ISU students help keep these programs and the nonprofit center running smoothly.
“It's not just a service space, it's also a community center,” Hodgins said. “In a time when we're lacking so much community, it is so important, I can't say that enough.”
This fall, the center was supposed to staff four more ISU students. The students would have been funded through federal work study and Sycamore Community Work programs, but ISU cut that funding in August.
While the university said it’s following the federal government’s lead, the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and the center argued ISU is violating the First Amendment. The ACLU filed a lawsuit over the funding in U.S. District Court in September.
As a student who said she has benefitted professionally, academically and personally from the center, Hodgins said it feels like a bridge is being burned.
“The best way I can put it is I've been disappointed with some of the decisions that have been made, not only as a worker here, because, yes, I'm a worker here, but I am a student first,” Hodgins said.
ISU spokespeople did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Legal documents show ISU cut support because of the U.S. Department of Justice’s guidance issued in July. ISU said the department advised it against supporting positions or programs that “allocate benefits or roles based on protected characteristics, including sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The guidance is part of the Trump Administration's crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion that categorizes those programs as unlawful discrimination.
But the ACLU Legal Director Ken Falk said that kind of federal advice isn’t legally binding.
“It's not law,” Falk said. “It's guidance. It's not even mandatory, necessarily, to comply with.”
ACLU lawyers argued ISU’s decision to cut funding isn’t really about discrimination, it’s about the center’s support and advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community.
“The Pride Center does not discriminate on who it serves, nor does it discriminate on who it hires or approves for work study students,” Falk said. “The Pride Center was treated this way because of what the Pride Center does, and that what the Pride Center does is an exercise of its First Amendment.”
The ACLU asked a federal judge for a preliminary injunction, which would force the university to fund those four student employees.
This is the second time this year the ACLU and the Pride Center have sued ISU. The first was over the university’s decision to break tradition and prevent the annual Pride Festival from happening on campus.
After reaching an agreement, the festival was held at a public park, not at ISU.
Sienna Vannette, an ISU junior and president of the student organization Spectrum, a group that says it’s for “the spectrum of gender and sexual diversities,” said the university administration has changed its tone.
“The first word that comes to mind is ‘disaffiliated,’” said Vannette. “Indiana State University has kind of separated themselves from Spectrum and from the LGBTQIA+ community.”
Now Spectrum faces an uncertain future.
The club used to partner with the admissions office during Pride Fest, but that didn’t happen this year, Vannette said. Another annual conference, A Drop of Lavender, is still up in the air.
Plus, after the university eliminated its multicultural services and programs to cut DEI programming, Spectrum lost financial support.
Still, Vannette said faculty and students continue to support their work.
“We just want to continue to be a safe space for everyone, even if we have a rainbow flag attached to our logo,” Vannette said.
The Pride Center and ISU’s ties extend beyond student workers and volunteers. ISU faculty and staff served as founding board members, said Interim Board Secretary Ian Braly.
The center’s current staff would like to work with the university and share resources, Braly said. But they’re also going to stand their ground.
“I don't think it says anything about just being litigious,” Braly said. “I think it shows that we have a backbone, and that we are trying to grow, and that we aren't going to just kind of roll over because, a large university is like, ‘These guidelines come through.’”
Braly stressed everything offered — from therapy to karaoke to free toothpaste — is open to everyone, regardless of their gender or identity. They do ask staff and volunteers to be respectful to LGBTQ+ people, because that’s who they serve, he said.
“As any community center would, our goal is to provide resources specifically to people who may be underserved,” Braly said.
