LGBT listening session attracts few students
The LGBT Campus Center and the Offices of the Dean of Students hosted a forum on LGBT issues Tuesday evening, but only a handful of students attended, most of whom were affiliated with the center. Participants discussed making the LGBTCC’s library more useful and user friendly, reducing harassment in residence halls and on campus and reaching out to the UW community to collaborate on LGBT issues.

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Improving the LGBT Campus Center library
Forum participants discuss how the LGBTCC library isn’t an attractive option for students who want to use it.

A very small group of students offered suggestions for improving what they consider a sometimes hostile environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students at the University of Wisconsin and expressed interest in a new LGBT Campus Center in a listening session with Dean of Students Lori Berquam Tuesday.

Tuesday’s session, which was attended by only five students and members of the student press, was the first of several events the LGBT Campus Center will facilitate this academic year to assess UW’s LGBT climate, solicit student input for a new LGBT space and develop strategies for raising awareness on issues that affect the LGBT community.

“We’re looking at taking a snapshot of how things are going in the center, how things are going on campus for LGBT students and, frankly, their allies,” Berquam said.

The few students who attended the session voiced concern over hostilities they and other LGBT students have experienced in classrooms and dormitories on campus.

Eric Trekell, director of the LGBT Campus Center, said providing a welcoming environment for LGBT students and addressing the hostilities students face are crucial goals of the center.

“College students are still forming their sense of identity, and I think that that’s a critical problem,” Trekell said. “We also have students who are LGBT identified but who want absolutely nothing to do with the center because of the connotations.”

UW senior Shaun Aukland said as a freshman he felt hostility from other residents in his dorm, adding he believes UW’s educational environment perpetuates the exclusion of LGBT students.

“I’ve felt left out of certain curriculums,” Aukland said, citing an interpersonal communication course that focused on forming relationships but avoided homosexual relationships.

This situation is common across campus and reflects a “heteronormative” approach to education that defines heterosexuality as the standard and disregards homosexual topics, Trekell said.

He added he feels these situations indicate a need for a program to educate faculty on LGBT sensitivity and provide solutions for students who feel ostracized.

Trekell said the listening session was spurred in part by UW’s announcement in October of the Inclusive Excellence initiative, an effort to create a more diverse campus and confront diversity issues in all sectors of UW.

Comments students shared in Tuesday’s listening session will help administrators determine how to include LGBT students in the initiative, he said.

“In past initiatives, LGBT people and LGBT issues haven’t been addressed,” Trekell said. “The Inclusive Excellence is designed to do that.”

The session also focused on the possibility of creating a new home for the center within the next two to three years. About 3,800 students last year visited the 500 square foot center, which is currently located in Memorial Union. The center’s library draws about 600 patrons annually and about 8,000 students attend the center’s events each year, according to Trekell.

“It’s a small enough space that if you get five or six students hanging out there and they’re all good friends, it does feel very cliquey for someone who walks in,” Trekell said.

Currently, administrators are looking at moving the center to the Red Gym, but Berquam said there are no definite plans in place.