Beyond the Atrium is a podcast brought to you by the students of the Prairie State Pioneer newspaper. Our goal is to broadcast the news, events, accomplishments, and anything else we can sink our journalistic teeth into. We hope to make campus information more accessible to the students, faculty, and staff of Prairie State College.

Beyond the Atrium interviews Rebecca Fassbender, President of Prairie State Pride Club, on her opposition to PSC’s graduation venue. The graduation ceremony has been held at this venue for a few years and there has been opposition from students, faculty, and staff, which is reaching a boiling point since the issue recently made its way to the mainstream news. The story was featured on the front page of the Chicago Tribune the morning of this interview.

In part 2 of our three part series on PSC’s graduation venue and Lavender Graduation deep dive, Beyond the Atrium interviews Dr. Desirée Anderson, Prairie State College’s Dean of Equity and Inclusion and our Title IX Coordinator, and Jennica Rodriguez, the Director of the PEACE (Pride Equity Access Cultural Exchange) Center. The Pioneer gets the perspectives, thoughts, and opinions from Prairie State Pride’s first line of communication. We also get an inside scoop on exciting things to come in PSC’s future!

In the third and final installment of our Pioneer deep dive into PSC’s graduation venue and Lavender Graduation, Beyond the Atrium interviews Prairie State College President, Dr. Michael Anthony. Dr. Anthony was off-site at the time, but found time to come to us via speakerphone. He goes into what it means to be the president of a community college and the timeline of the graduation venue in question. He also describes the process involved in the selection of a ceremony venue.