The Daily Tar Heel
Printing news. Raising hell. Since 1893.
Thursday, March 28, 2024 Newsletters Latest print issue

We keep you informed.

Help us keep going. Donate Today.
The Daily Tar Heel

GPSF Voices Support for LGBTQ Aim

Progress stalled by state budget cuts.

A motion to support the provost's office report on the climate for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community at UNC passed Tuesday at the Graduate and Professional Student Federation meeting.

GPSF President Branson Page said the motion was made because two of the GPSF Cabinet members are co-coordinators for LGBTQ issues.

"We recognized their accomplishments," Page said. "We wanted to give them as much support as possible."

Page said that the GPSF does not intend to take any action to speed the implementation of the report but that members wanted to show respect for the provost and for the work put into the document.

Pamela Conover, chairwoman of the planning committee that wrote the report, said any support is helpful. "It's important that the campus as a whole embrace the ideas," she said. "It lends the report validity."

The report states that the University's goals are to "facilitate the development of a lively LGBTQ community and to promote an open and tolerant University Community that engages the LGBTQ community in intellectual and social exchange."

The LGBTQ Climate report was released last May, but the implementation of the report's recommendations has been slow due to the state's budget crisis. The University is involved in the development of an LGBTQ resource center, and offices in Steele Building are slated to open in the next couple of weeks, Conover said.

Provost Robert Shelton said parts of the report are already being put into play, though "some of these things are so long term that I look at them as open-ended."

Conover said UNC is behind its peer institutions in its organizational infrastructure regarding the LGBTQ community. She said she is hopeful that the report, and the actions detailed within it, will bring the University up to speed.

The slow development of an active LGBTQ community is partly due to geography, Conover said. "North Carolina isn't a very gay-friendly state," she said. "The South in general isn't very gay-friendly."

The University is taking measures to make the LGBTQ community feel more comfortable, including looking into the creation of new curriculum in sexual identity.

"This will be handled in a manner that's completely consistent with how we develop an academic program" Shelton said.

He stressed that there would not be a department dedicated to the study of sexual identity yet but that there would be possibilities for future growth. "I think it's a good sign when any group feels comfortable coming out and talking."

 

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.

To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.