As students continue to lobby for a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender resource center, Northwestern administrators are saying that tight finances and a lack of office space might hinder the center’s creation in the near future.
The proposal, passed April 30 by Associated Student Government senators, calls on administrators to create a resource center in a house west of Sheridan Road.
University President Henry Bienen told The Daily late last week he wants to be “accommodating” to LGBT students’ needs but is unwilling to offer facilities the university might not be able to afford. NU is one of only two schools in the Big Ten conference without an LGBT center.
Bienen said Thursday that he is not persuaded by the offerings at other schools — especially those much larger than NU.
“This is a very changed world with regards to budget,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of houses that are sitting around.”
To more effectively work with administrators, LGBT students have created a 10-person task force to continue lobbying administrators for the facility, which would be equipped with a fully trained staff member, library and recreation room — features similar to the Black House and student group offices in the Multicultural Center.
Rainbow Alliance Sen. John Hughes, who leads the task force, said the group will be able to draft recommendations to administrators more efficiently than ASG or Rainbow Alliance.
“We’re a smaller group of people, more efficient and more work intensive,” said Hughes, a Weinberg sophomore and former Daily Forum editor. “Now Rainbow Alliance can concentrate more on programming.”
Although members of Rainbow Alliance and the task-force overlap, the new lobbying group is now the chief organizing body fighting for an LGBT resource center, according to Rainbow Alliance co-President Justin Lipper.
“The only thing the task force can expect from Rainbow Alliance is their support,” said Lipper, a Weinberg sophomore.
Despite task-force members’ efforts, however, a crunch for office space on the Evanston Campus might also prevent an LGBT resource center from becoming a reality.
Once Crowe Hall, the addition to Kresge Centennial Hall, opens at the end of Spring Quarter, several academic departments will move from their houses along the west side of Sheridan into the new facility.
Departments with houses on Sheridan and Hinman Avenue, including the writing program and the philosophy and religion departments, will move into Crowe.
But the house vacancies do not guarantee a home for the LGBT resource center, as several departments are expected to apply for space in the empty houses along Sheridan and Hinman, said Eugene Sunshine, senior vice president for business and finance.
“The opening of Crowe Hall starts the potential for musical chairs,” Sunshine told The Daily on May 14. “But there’s no shortage of very important and worthy causes when the spaces are freed up.”
Norris University Center officials have offered LGBT students an office on the third floor of the building, but Hughes said some LGBT students are concerned the space is too small and too close in proximity to the politically oriented Rainbow Alliance’s office.
LGBT students are also afraid the busy hallways of Norris could deter students who are uncomfortable with their sexuality or need information from using the space, Hughes added.
But if university officials cannot find space in a house along Sheridan for LGBT students, Hughes said the group “absolutely” would accept the Norris proposal.
“We’ll take a resource center rather than no resource center,” Hughes said. “We’d start with Norris, but we’d probably have a community discussion about what we feel before we take any more action.”
Because LGBT students are continuing to work with administrators to create the best possible proposal, Hughes said he expects an LGBT resource center to take shape in the near future.
“We’re working through lots of logistics problems, but an LGBT resource center will be coming,” he said.
The Daily’s Dalia Naamani-Goldman contributed to this report.
