Rainbow Alliance introduced legislation to relocate the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center to a house on Sheridan Road in Wednesday’s Associated Student Government meeting.

Located on the third floor of Norris University Center, the GSRC serves as a safe place for LGBTQ+ students and an area for small gatherings. The current location is made up of two rooms that have a maximum capacity of 10 students. Rainbow Alliance ASG Senator Jo Scaletty, who presented the proposal, said a house would better establish and affirm the center’s place on campus.

“Ten students in the two main community rooms at one time really doesn’t provide a lot of opportunity for community building,” Scaletty said.

While some expressed concern over the feasibility of the request, with all the houses on Sheridan currently occupied, Scaletty said houses may become available. According to ASG President Juan Zuniga, houses used by Weinberg offices may become available as the offices were on track to move to the Donald P. Jacobs Center before it became a COVID-19 testing site. Zuniga added that the Jacobs Center could act as a larger space for the center after the pandemic.

GSRC was meant to inhabit a larger space since it was first established. ASG passed legislation in 2003 to create an LGBTQ+ Center that would be based in a house on Sheridan. The legislation was denied by administration due to a tight budget. That led to the center, now known as the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center, being placed in Norris instead.

“We’re really pushing for (a house) on Sheridan because what it currently is is not acceptable,” Scaletty said.

Both Scaletty and ASG Chief of Staff Elizabeth Sperti, a co-sponsor of the legislation, stressed the importance of the timeline outlined in the legislation, which includes deadlines for administration’s statement of commitment, the creation of an action plan and starting expansion.

The legislation calls for the expansion to start by the last day of Winter Quarter in 2021.

A timeline could help coordinate house turnover, Scaletty said, and it would ensure accountability from the University. While many factors are up in the air, Sperti said a timeline and a University commitment is important, even as far down the line as five years.

ASG will vote on the legislation next week.

“Someone has to make them commit to this,” Sperti said. “Might as well be now.”

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