The Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Multicultural Education (ODIME) is proud to launch a new apparel pantry Gompei's Closet for the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) community.
Gompei's Closet will be housed on the second floor of the Collegiate Religious Center (CRC) at 19 Schussler Road and serve as an on campus resource for students to request and receive clothing products, ties, dress shirts, blouses, shirts, underwear, socks, and other garments. Initial donations were made possible by Hillel, Green Team, and Mackenzie Lipman.
The ODIME team is grateful to all of our campus partners, faculty, staff, community partners, and close collaborators who made this student need visible and possible. ODIME will partner with the Green Team’s Free Thrift Store each term to accept and clean donations provided by the WPI community, and inclusively sort clothing materials in order for students to have access to what they might need. ODIME will also fill in the gap of received donations by purchasing clothing materials worn beneath outer clothes as a sanitary practice.
“Clothing is an issue of contention for person(s) with social locations where multiple marginal identities meet. Gompei's Closet exists to ease the stressors of how one presents themselves to the world. I imagine students requesting any and all types of materials from our office to support and encourage however students’ choose to present themselves in all spheres, public and private. Clothing access is a basic human right, and Gompei's Closet serves as a resource for students to exercise that right.” –Kalvin Cummings, Assistant Director for Religion and Spiritual Life
Special thanks for the support and continued partnership from the following for making this new student resource possible:
- Hillel
- Green Team
- Anish Nakahara '22
- Grace Malabanti '22
- Elitumaini Swai '23
- Hailey Anderson '23
- Emma Raven '23
- Mackenzie Lipman, Assistant Director for Student Activities
To request items or make a contribution to Gompei's Closet please complete an ODIME Request Form online and select 'Gompei's Closet'.
For more information, questions, or concerns, please contact Kalvin Cummings (he/him) at diversity@wpi.edu.
The Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Multicultural Education (ODIME) promotes and oversees all student facing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) learning experiences, programs, services, trainings, and initiatives for WPI.