By Ketul PatelThe Daily Northwestern

The new coordinator of student organizations for social justice issues will begin work Thursday.

In the position, Doris Dirks will oversee Northwestern’s social justice groups and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center. She now works as the coordinator of Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender Student Services at Western Michigan University.

Dirks said she wants Northwestern’s LGBT resource center to grow by making it more welcoming for students to use. She said she has tried to make students at Western Michigan more comfortable with their resource space.

“It’s a great thing that the resource center has been established (at NU),” she said. “One of my goals is to have it be used more by students.”

Kelsey Pacha, co-president of Rainbow Alliance, NU’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer and ally student group, said she hopes Dirks will offer clarity about the roles of the resource center.

“I’m hoping we have more coherence between the resource center, Rainbow Alliance and the support network,” said Pacha, a SESP junior. “We can streamline and clarify what each group does. Having a coordinator will be beneficial in giving each group its roles.”

Pacha also said she wants to have the group use the resource center in a greater capacity.

“We’ve been gradually moving toward using the resource center more,” she said. “Without a staff person to man that, it’s been really difficult.”

Dirks said she wants to be flexible in her coordination of student groups.

“There are things I want to accomplish, but it’s important to talk to people about their goals,” she said. “We can work together to figure out what support I can offer them.”

Dirks said she hopes to use her prior experience working with student services to help NU organizations with their programming.

“I’ll bring my experience, and we’ll try to figure out what it is they want from me,” she said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to make that happen.”

The list of social justice groups has not been finalized, but groups might include Peace Project and Northwestern Opposing War and Racism.

Dirks will start working part time this quarter because she is still pursuing a master’s degree in student affairs and a doctorate in education leadership at Western Michigan. She will work full time after finishing her studies in December.

“I’m going to have a crazy schedule the next six weeks,” she said. “I’m going to be splitting two 10-hour days at Northwestern and Western Michigan with a day to travel in between.”

Helen Wood, associate director of the Center for Student Involvement, said she hopes Dirks can help build community at NU.

“I hope she’ll be able to bring together the university community through programming and working with the groups,” she said.

Reach Ketul Patel at [email protected].