Grove offers community for LGBTQIA Students

LINDSEY ZARKA
PHOTOGRAPH

ANDREW SECORD
STAFF WRITER

2/9/2026

Alma College’s newest Living Learning Community, the Grove, was started in Fall 2025, to “provide students with [a] welcoming community and…. programming that supports student growth, [and] self-advocacy,” said Alice Kramer, the Assistant VP for Student Engagement.

Kramer has had the idea to create the Grove for several years now, but it finally came about this past fall, with the consideration “of the environment we were in… [and] the support… of VP Damon Brown… Community was priority number one,” Kramer said. She wants LGBTQIA students to feel “welcome,” in their living spaces and to teach LGBTQIA students better “conflict management and “self-adovacy.” 

I also talked to Professor Jon Glenn, the Director of Diversity and Inclusion, who worked alongside Kramer on coming up with the idea.

 “The Alma College leadership wanted to provide additional spaces where students who identify within the LGBTQIA community could also experience success in their belonging, their academics, and their social experiences,” said Glenn.

Aside from Kramer, I talked to three students associated with the Grove LLC; the RA, Jake Lasceski (‘26) and two students who live in the Grove, Kennedy Mullens (‘29) and Damien Gagnon (‘29). A major draw of the Grove for those students was the communal atmosphere it offers. 

“I just felt really drawn to serve the community that I’m a part of… Assimilating into an environment like this can be tough as a queer person, so I just wanted to be able to make sure that the first year of the Grove went well with a proper support staff, and I knew that I could be that RA,” said Lasceski. 

“Growing up queer, [in Alma] is not easy… Finding out that there was a space specifically for students like me made me feel a lot better, [and gave them] a sense of security,” said Mullens.

The Grove “helped me open up and make more friends, as well as gave me people that I know that I can confide in… I wish we had more people… so that I could have even more friends,” said Gagnon.

However, being part of a marginalized community is never easy, and there are still complications and potential dangers for the students living in the Grove. 

“For the most part we all get along really really well, but we’re also not like just one homogenous identity. I really enjoy learning about everyone’s quirks and, like, who they are and what they’re interested in. But we’ve also had some issues with harassment,” said Mullens.

“It’s kind of private… which I think is appropriate… for the campus and political environment that we’re in, [but] I wish it was a place that everybody knew about… and accepted,” said Lasceski.

“I love the location… [but] I might consider changing [it to] demotivate people… from going out of their way to harass us,” said Mullens.

Alma’s faculty are working in order to improve the Grove for the upcoming years. Student feedback is very important so that they can know what should be done first. 

“Our first step would be to hear from students,” said Kramer. 

“Once the semester is over, the leadership team will gather to see how we can get better at supporting our students,” said Glenn.