A new student organization aims to create a welcoming space for queer School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences students at the University of Wisconsin– Madison.
In its first year, IRIS: Queer CDIS Syndicate, was created by CDIS student Anirudh Chimata in response to seeing a need within the school.
“I joined the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center Discord server and saw it was a need that a lot of students were looking for,” says Chimata.There are many queer student organizations on campus in other schools and departments. CDIS has many queer students on campus, but didn’t have a queer student organization.,” says Chimata.
Chimata is a rising senior studying Data Science and Information Science, with a certificate in Computer Sciences. He also works with the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center (GSCC) and participates in other queer student organizations on campus. With this background, he felt he was perfectly positioned to create to fill the gap in support for CDIS students.
“A lot of queer students think they are isolated and that they don’t have people to find community with. I think it is so important to show people that this space exists and that there are other queer students out there,” says Chimata.
In the future, Chimata hopes that more queer students feel encouraged to fully express their personalities and identities in their classes and projects.
“I think that it’s a need for students to feel like they are allowed to be themselves in their projects, and they are allowed to bring out their personalities when they come up with applications, other projects, or when they are trying to put their resumes together,” says Chimata. “I want to see students put their personalities into their work. I feel like there is so much more we can bring to the table if we know that we could be ourselves.”
Chimata says that building community is a crucial skill for CDIS students, many of whom will enter predominately cisgender, heterosexual fields after graduation.
“A lot of us are going to go into very cisgender normative spaces or corporate worlds where we don’t know if it will be accepted for us to be who we want to be,” says Chimata. “I think it’s a lot harder to feel like you are allowed to take up that space in a company if you are not doing that in college.,” says Chimata.
Chimata’s point is borne out in real-world data. One recent survey found two in five LGBTQ+ tech employees have seen or experienced discrimination at work, while two in three said bullying contributed to their decision to leave a job altogether. With this in mind, Chimata says he will take the lessons he has learned from leading IRIS and participating in other queer spaces on campus into his future career.
“What I’ve learned in the last three years of college is that you bring yourself to work. I will bring myself to work and encourage others to bring themselves,” says Chimata.
Alongside the IRIS board, Chimata is excited to launch the group in the fall semester and are looking forward to organizing various many different events in the future, such as a hackathon, queer networking events, and spaces to learn from other queer alumni and professionals. They The group would also like to partner with other LGBTQ+ organizations such as the College of Engineering’s Queer Trans Engineers.
“I just hope that people take away that they are allowed to be themselves and can also be CDIS [students]. They can be programmers, data scientists, and librarians,” says Chimata. “I’m hoping people can be queer and trans and proud.,” says Chimata.
All CDIS students are welcome to participate, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Students interested in joining IRIS: CDIS Queer Syndicate can join their Discord server or follow their Instagram page. IRIS is also accepting applications for student board members. Interested students can email Anirudh Chimata-achimata@wisc.edu.