This fall marks the first official University of Wisconsin offering of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies Certificate, following a growing trend among universities nationwide.

“It’s a growing body of knowledge and scholarship,” Sara Hinkel, Dean of Students LGBT Issues Coordinator, said.

Hinkel also said plans to institutionalize such an area of study here have been in effect since 1997, when the program was introduced as part of a Faculty Senate report. Since then, the program has fallen in line with an increasingly popular movement at universities throughout the nation.

“It’s something we’ve been striving towards for years. We’re really keeping up on a national trend,” she said. She added that the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of Iowa are just several among many that have offered similar programs for numerous years.

As assistant professor of English Victor Bascara noted, LGBT has been a widespread course of study at leading research institutes for some time.

“It has made significant advances in institutional dimension and recognition. It’s a response to demand that there may be for a university to offer more,” he said. “Disciplines we think of as eternal all have an origin, and this is the beginnings of the institutionalization of LGBT here.”

LGBT studies first emerged in the university scene in the ’70s, when the University of California introduced a class entitled “Psychology of Gays and Lesbians” in 1976 and Southern Oregon State University offered “Gay Studies.”

Since that time, the course of study was slowly picked up throughout the ’80s and continued to flourish all over the nation during the ’90s.

Now, LGBT studies have extended beyond the undergraduate boundaries, with such places as the University of Chicago and the California School of Professional Psychology introducing graduate programs. Loyola University in Los Angeles offers LGBT studies within its law-school programs.

Courses within the certificate at UW have been popular among students already, with enrollments for individual classes reaching beyond 200 students. The certificate will study and analyze many facets of sexuality, including its societal role in medicine, law and religion, among others. It will also look at how these roles affect theoretical, practical and historical elements of social organization.

But formulating the certificate took overcoming several hurdles, Hinkel said.

With UW facing severe budget cuts, the LGBT certificate was allotted no additional funding. But thanks to advising and faculty support, the new certificate program is comprised of already existing courses taught by current faculty members, thus requiring no additional funds. In addition, the Women’s Studies office will act as the administrative center for the certificate.

Hinkel said the formulated program takes advantage of what UW has to offer, adding that the existing courses “had a critical amount, a central focus of LGBT issues.”

Depending on student interest, which Hinkel expects to grow, LGBT may eventually become a certified major course of study. Nonetheless, Hinkel expects the certificate program to have several positive effects on the UW campus for both LGBT and non-LGBT students.

“It should improve the climate on campus and produce a knowledgeable student body and eventually a knowledgeable citizenry,” Hinkel said. She added that LGBT studies can help everyone learn about their sexuality.

Bascara agreed, noting that receiving such a certificate has a twofold benefit for students. Not only do students receive a direct education in the LGBT field, they also are educated for something that has broad applicability in many other areas of life.

Students interested in completing the certificate program are required to take 15 credits within the field, including an introductory course, three electives and a capstone seminar or a directed study.