A taskforce was created in March to
address issues facing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT)
students on the Appalachian State University campus.
“The initial push came out of some conversations that some
students had with some of the administrators on our campus regarding
a desire to see a GLBT center developed for our campus,” said
taskforce member Tracey L. Wright, director of Multicultural Programs.
Wright said the purpose of the taskforce was to raise awareness
across campus and to make the campus more GLBT friendly.
Members of the taskforce, which consist of four staff and faculty
representatives and three student representatives, put together
a list of 13 short-term and 10 long-term recommendations for the
Center of Student Involvement and Leadership (CSIL) office. Some
of the short-term suggestions include creating a GLBT web page on
the Multicultural Student Development Web site, placing information
on GLBT services and groups in the Counseling and Multicultural
Centers and changing some Housing and Residence Life policies to
accommodate GLBT students. Long-term recommendations include expanding
the Multicultural Center, creating a GLBT Alumni Association, developing
a GLBT Studies curriculum at the graduate and undergraduate levels
and creating a GLBT Center equipped with information and staff.
“A number of those [recommendations have] already begun. Some
are more long-term and are going to take some time; others are more
short-term and are pretty easy to do,” said Dino DiBernardi,
director of CSIL.
However, he also noted that all of the taskforce’s work may
not be approved as is.
“There’s no guarantee that each and every one of these
[recommendations] might not be approved as they are. They could
be approved or rejected based on everything from money to various
other kinds of things,” DiBernardi said.
“We’re looking to accomplish identifying needs, wants
and services for a population that has been traditionally underrepresented
as far as services provided. I think this is also an avenue to either
add to the debate or add some information on where we are as a campus
and on the creation of a center,” said Anwar S. Cruter, assistant
director of Multicultural Education and member of the taskforce.
Cruter commented on the importance of the taskforce by pointing
out recent events on campus.
“National Coming Out Day was last Thursday and B-GLAAD painted
the tunnel and people, persons or groups decided to deface the tunnel
and that’s just an example of how, not even in the course of
a day, someone decided to put slurs and paint over it and write
comments. I guess that kind of speaks for itself,” Cruter said.
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