Students will meet with University President Henry Bienen today to discuss creating a resource office for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students after a year researching the initiative and a recent meeting with administrators.
While no proposal has been drafted for the office, leaders of the LGBT Support Network have researched the idea for the past year. About half of NU’s peer universities have a resource office for gay students on campus, said Leslie DeMonte, co-sponsor of the support network.
But William Banis, vice president for student affairs, said his office likely will not create new positions in the near future. After a period of economic growth that saw the establishment of offices for Hispanic and Latino student services and Asian and Asian-American student services, NU’s budget has seen harder times this year.
“I’m not expecting any more positions in student affairs,” Banis said. “Our budgets are flat.”
Resources such as the support network exist to help LGBT students adjust to life at NU. The directors of the program volunteer their time, and students need a full-time employee to help with issues such as programming, coming out resources and health issues, DeMonte said.
While the Rainbow Alliance’s office in Norris University Center often serves as an informal resource center, students cannot staff the office all day, said Alex Goldman, Rainbow Alliance’s co-president.
“People come in to get condom packets, people come into get resource packets,” said Goldman, a Weinberg freshman. “If it was more centralized, if we had the ability to publicize it more, then people would make more use of it.”
Rainbow Alliance receives about $6,000 a year from Associated Student Government, but the amount fluctuates depending on the quality of the group’s programming, said Jake Reitan, former Rainbow Alliance activist chair.
“What we have at NU is a stick mechanism where the LGBT gets the stick if they do bad and the carrot if they do good,” Reitan said. “There should be just an institution that exists on a yearly basis no matter what LGBT students do.”
Reitan said Banis should look beyond tight budgets in planning services.
“It’s important, even in a budget crunch, that he take proactive steps toward feeling that void and making LGBT one of the top priorities,” said Reitan, a Speech sophomore.
Reitan said students need a paid staff member to focus solely on helping LGBT students feel comfortable at NU, providing a service like the one the Black House provides for black students.
Rachel Lopez, Associated Student Government president, included increased financial support and resources for these groups in her presidential platform and said she plans to lobby for a part-time LGBT adviser through the Undergraduate Budget Priorities Committee, a five-person group that submits yearly proposals for NU’s budget.
“Most private schools do have some sort of resource office,” said Lopez, a Weinberg junior. “We do have a large gay and lesbian population on campus and they don’t seem to have the resources other groups do. I thought that was unfair and needed to be changed.”
