Students advocating the creation of a resource center for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students on campus presented a petition with over 1,000 names to Vice President of Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez during a meeting Monday. No formal conclusions were reached at the meeting.
“None of us felt like we got a response,” Joe McFadden (CAS ‘02), co-president of GU Pride and a Voice staff member, said. “The administration doesn’t think the center fits with Georgetown’s Catholic identity.”
The meeting on Monday was a follow-up to a previous meeting where the students working on the resource center proposal presented information claiming the center would not conflict with Catholic teachings. They also pointed to a U.S. Court of Appeals case in the 1980’s that found Georgetown in violation of the D.C. Human Rights Act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Gonzalez has yet to refute either argument, according to McFadden.
“We are extremely interested in working with the administration on this. We don’t have any specific concrete demands, but we have given them a framework to address issues. We will pursue this,” McFadden said.
Both the administration and the students felt they gained a clearer understanding of the issues.
“The meeting was part of an ongoing dialogue,” Director of Student Programs Mary Kay Schneider said. Schneider said that the administration is trying to identify the students’ demands.
“It’s a work in progress, not a conclusion,” Schneider said.
“The University has shown that they definitely want to help with the social problems that come with having a GLBT identity at Georgetown, but the administration is going to have to take more action if they want to help alleviate the problems,” said Danielle DeCerbo (CAS ‘03), a member of GU Pride and Voice staff member.
The proposed resource center would provide a full-time staff member devoted to GLBT affairs on campus.
“The resource center would centralize and standardize current programs and develop, organize and sponsor other events for those with a GLBT identity,” DeCerbo said.
The center would also keep statistics about problems that GLBT students encounter on campus, such as harassment and housing issues, DeCerbo said. She added that it will contain information on post-graduate programs and corporations that are “gay friendly.”
“It will be a symbolic place for people to converge within Healy Gates,” she said.
