Fresno City College students in the Pride Center voiced frustration on how the Pride Center space may be used next academic year. The Pride Center isn’t confirmed to be moved, but students are concerned about potentially losing the physical location following FCC administration discussions on space allocation. 

FCC’s Pride Center is located in LI-143 near the library and main fountain on campus, a location that receives a lot of foot traffic. The center opened in the fall semester of 2025. 

The Pride Center is a space for students who identify as LGBTQIA+ and allies to hang out with other members from the community. Students from CHEL, a student success program that supports the LGBTQIA+ community, and members from FCC’s Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) club frequent the center.

CHEL counselor Linda Vang said there were discussions on an administrative level “regarding space allocations for multiple programs.” Vang said the Pride Center was approved to remain in LI-143 during the 2025-26 academic year by the Resource Committee, which is in charge of space allocation on campus. 

Vang explained that because the Pride Center was only approved to remain in LI-143 until the end of the 2026 spring semester, the space could become available in the fall. 

Director of Marketing and Communications, Cris Bremer, said none of FCC’s current programs and services are being moved or discontinued. 

“As our college continues to grow both in student population and with the services that are offered, campus leadership is exploring the physical space needs of all programs to support their growth and abilities to deliver services to our students,” Bremer said.

Indy Williams, a student leader at the Pride Center and vice president of the GSA club, said the Pride Center wasn’t guaranteed to have the room in the future. 

“As a student worker at the Pride Center, I’ve known for a minute that it wasn’t guaranteed,” Williams said. “I’ve known for a while, but we weren’t super sure, and we didn’t want to scare any of the students, but eventually word got around.”

The Pride Center’s former Senior Program Specialist, Jessica Schulz, said the center was notified of a potential move in the summer of 2025. Since then, Schulz claimed members from the Pride Center asked “several times” for further information. 

Schulz and Vang said they haven’t received any updates from administration. 

“There is not a definitive answer just yet, except that there’s been no confirmation of movement,” Vang said. 

The possibility of the center moving spread among students by word of mouth, according to Love Quezada, an ASG senator and frequent visitor of the Pride Center. Quezada said they and other students are upset they haven’t received any more information about the center possibly moving. 

“I just wish that for a campus that wants to be completely transparent, for a campus that wants to have an open door policy, for a campus that wants to promote their way of communication and their form of communication, they need to do better,” Quezada said. 

Another student in the Pride Center and English major, Jasmin, who only wished to use her first name, said frustrations stem from the way the information was passed down to students. 

“We’re also still exponentially angry at the system for just kind of springing it on us,” Jasmin said. 

Jasmin said that some of the FCC staff she reached out to, including Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) English center (located in LI-142) coordinator Jennifer Dorian, was also unaware of the Pride Center possibly moving. 

“The fact that not even the people who we are supposed to count on to know things for us about this campus [can] tell us, shows more about how higher-ups are handling the situation overall,” Jasmin said. 

Quezada claimed they and other students saw members from FCC’s Umoja Community check out LI-143. Students worried the room was being previewed for other programs to use in the future. 

However, the Umoja Community counselor and coordinator, Arrie Smith, said there are no plans or statements from the program to move to LI-143. 

Smith and Vang clarified this was a misunderstanding between students, and that visitors from the Umoja Community came to check out furniture for their own space, not to preview the room.  

There is no confirmation from FCC administration that another program will take the Pride Center’s room in the future. 

Pride Center Students Feel “Left in the Dark”

Since discussions about the potential move started rising, students in the Pride Center said they’re frustrated about a lack of transparency from administration. 

“They have left us completely in the dark,” Quezada said. 

Williams and Vang said administration didn’t tell them where the Pride Center could be moved when they discussed a possible location change. Williams explained this added to the confusion for students.

Students and staff in the Pride Center haven’t been included in conversations about the center’s location, according to Vang. 

FCC’s GSA President, Peter Fleming, felt the community was left out of the decision making process. 

“I feel like also specifically for me, that’s something that makes me upset, because in this whole conversation, there haven’t been necessarily any queer students involved,” Fleming said. 

For the students who frequent the Pride Center, their frustrations aren’t just from being left in the dark. To some, the center is a space they’ve built a community in, and not knowing if they will have the space has encouraged students to “advocate for their space,” according to Vang. 

Mechanical engineering major Joseph, who also wished to only be identified by his first name, said the Pride Center is the reason he stays on campus outside of class. 

Danny Moreno, history major, said he considered dropping out of college before he found the Pride Center. 

“Coming into this room and having people that I can relate to, or having people with the same majors as me kind of helps me,” Moreno said. “Just knowing that the one place that I actually felt more comfortable with than being on actual campus [could be] closed kind of hurts.”

The center averages about 10 to 20 students every hour, according to a sign-in sheet tracked by student workers. Jasmin claimed even before the center opens, there are students waiting to get in. 

During events, the center sometimes reaches 40 students, according to Quezada.

Dru Cantu, a kinesiology major at FCC, fears if the center were to move locations, the number of students coming in may drop.

“They’re [administration] going to look at the numbers and be like, okay the Pride Center is not doing that well on numbers anymore. So we might as well just disband them, that’s the main concern,” Cantu said.

Students felt that the center has been a space for many to meet new people and connect with others that they otherwise would never have met before.

Moreno said the Pride Center holds a different space for those who come in that other groups don’t have.

“It’s a lot of people in different stages, different majors, and I think that’s what makes it the most incredible of a community is having different faces, opinions, people, so everyone understands each other and so it helps the community,” Moreno said.

FCC theater major Scarlet DeLara claimed the Pride Center receives students from different programs, regardless if a student identifies as LGBTQIA+ or not. 

The Pride Center’s bulletin board has flyers on resources for students. Jasmin and Quezada said they fear that information won’t reach students if the center is moved.

Quezada mentioned that with the location of the Pride Center being in the center of campus, it allows information to be easily accessible for students who need it. The Pride Center includes resources for students dealing with issues like STDs, ICE sightings and sexual assault.

“It’s like finding out that your public library is going to close. They don’t tell anybody, and it’s a space of so much information and resources,” Quezada said.  

Williams encouraged students to reach out to administration to voice their concerns, stating that many students don’t know who’s in charge of the decision. While Vang said FCC’s Resource Committee is in charge of space allocation, there is currently no contact information listed for the committee on FCC’s website. 

“They [students] just want to know what’s going to happen so they know how to move around the campus because this is their safe space,” Williams said. “I hope the students are going out of their way to let them know and speak their minds, because that’s part of what we do here at the Pride Center.”