Student pushes for fully-staffed Gender and Sexuality Center

By ALEXA VAN VILET
Posted: Wednesday, September 21st, 2011 at 1:12 am | Last Updated: Wednesday, September 21st, 2011 at 1:19 am
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It’s time to see some action around here and the students are ready to bring the heat.

On Aug. 2, I spoke at the Board of Trustees meeting about the need for a fully staffed Gender and Sexuality Center.

The Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC) is our campus’ resource center for women’s and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer/Questioning (LGBTIQ) issues.

It provides programming, advocacy and referrals for these core areas. In addition, the GSC provides literature and programming on healthy sexual well-being.

Most other public Michigan universities have a separate women’s center and LGBTIQ center, with at least one full-time employee for each.

Why do they get these resources and the OU students don’t? We deserve these. So much for being a competitive university, right?

We currently have one person, who works 20 hours a week, who is supposed to do all of that by herself.

She also has to work on developing relationships with all the other campus offices, restarting the LGBT Peer Mentor program, training 10 to 15 volunteers who can help run the GSC each semester, facilitating S.A.F.E. trainings both on and off campus, heading the schedule for all of Women’s History Month, creating trusting relationships with all types of students and also restarting the GSC Advisory Board.

All types of students, but especially survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault and LGBTIQ students, need this affirming, safe space so as to be the most successful as they can.

In order for the GSC to create the most accepting and safe of an atmosphere as possible, we need a full-time coordinator who can fulfill all the demands of both the administration and students.

Student leaders are launching a public campaign to demonstrate to the administration how much the entire community supports having a fully staffed GSC.

It’s a multi-faceted approach that includes collecting signatures, writing articles in the newspaper, gathering stories from OU students about safety on campus and more.

We’re going to present the postcards at the next Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 31, where the Board will decide the future of GSC.

We’ve been told “no” enough times from the administration to make a Justin Bieber-like “Baby” song. It just fuels us even more. We need your help.

Here’s your opportunity to, legitimately, make OU a better place. Activism has never been so easy to find.

If not to advocate for the safety, education and acceptance of all students, at least help us so as to be part of something bigger that will improve the place you spend so much money on.

It’s our duty to be involved since we pay $20,000 a year to go here. Might as well get your money’s worth! And having a full-time coordinator wouldn’t even make your tuition go up by a dollar.

Send me an email at apvanvli@oakland.edu, stop by the GSC  at room 49 D in the basement of the Oakland Center by the Center for Student Activities service window or find us tabling by the Food Court to sign a postcard. Have your friends sign them too.

You can also write a “letter to the editor” to this newspaper to show your support.

Finally, you can follow our campaign on Facebook (Fully Staffed GSC at OU Campaign), our Twitter and Blogger.

EMU


  • Adam Pharr

    Hello, my name is Adam Pharr, I am officially a senior at OU, however I have been here off and on since 2005. I first came to OU as an engineering student and then later again as a major in Exercise Science. In my almost 7 years at OU I have seen many positive and enormous changes in the GLBT community. While I am not a member of this community, I am a firm believer in the statement “one nation under god with liberty and justice for all”. Especially the “for all” part. I am proud to say I have lived in a time where I have seen change in bulling and acceptance of the GLBT community. I grew up in a place and time where acceptance was not quite there. People were still fighting to fully get rights as LBGT community member. People were still “in the closet” to say when I was growing up. I was also a child during the AIDS scares. I remember it being taught to me in my Michigan elementary school as a homosexual disease. I was pre programed to have racism in me, not by my family but by the society that I was a part of. However, as I grew and became my own individual with independent thoughts and strengths I made my own opinions and views on the LGBT community. I am proud to say that I now have a very open and honest relationship with numerous of my friends who are in the LGBT community. I was pleased to hear that OU was catching up with other universities by creating the new GSC. I was seriously displeased when I saw this article informing me that the GSC has only 1 Part time staffed coordinator with no real budget to make a serious impact in the LGBT community. I think that this is a little hypocritical of OU to implement a GSC and show case it as a PR move OU has done for the LGBT community and then not have a budget in place to fully staff the GSC. OU is a S.A.F.E campus, we are a place where racism in all forms is a serious offense and is not tolerated. OU’s GSC has a dual role of dealing with women’s issues along with GLBT issues. As the article states other universities have separate departments for each community. I feel that our center can handle both communities needs much better if they had a better budget and at least 1. a full time coordinator, 2. a full time assistant coordinator, 3. 2 full time non student staff positions, and 4. 2-4 student part time staffed positions. I am fully aware of the volunteers that are currently in place to assist in running the GSC, however this can go seriously wrong in my opinion. What qualifications do the volunteers actually have to assist with a serious issue that they may be faced. Some may have the “right stuff” while others may have less than is necessary to get it done. Also, it is my experience that volunteers commit only as much as they are able to. Other life issues may become over powering at times and this may pose as a threat to the current work force the GSC currently employees. I think some research needs to be put into finding a renewable annual grant to fully fund this project. OU has a department that is dedicated to writing for grants, it is a simple solution to our lack of commitment to the women and GLBT community of Oakland University. This could be a extremely successful project that OU may undertake.