Provost Robert Shelton and Professor Pamela Conover met Monday to discuss Shelton's decision to place the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer resource center under the jurisdiction of the Division of Student Affairs.
But some LGBTQ leaders have suggested that they will not support a center under student affairs.
In the provost's office report on the campus climate for the LGBTQ community released this summer, it was suggested that the center be placed under the jurisdiction of the Division of Academic Affairs.
Leaders of the LGBTQ community -- such as Glenn Grossman, co-chairman of the Carolina Alternative Meetings of Professional and Graduate Students -- said placement under academic affairs would enable work on developing a curriculum, establishing relationships with faculty members and creating new scholarships.
Dean Bresciani, interim vice chancellor for student affairs, said placing the center under his department's jurisdiction would not rule out the possibility of a curriculum in the future.
But for now, the center is "going to function more as a referral service until we actually have staff members to offer resources," Bresciani said.
Grossman said he worries that if the center is placed under student affairs, it will be used for sensitivity training and nothing more. "Unless UNC makes the LGBTQ resource center essentially an intellectual center, it will fail," he said.
Some members of the community also cited the location of African-American studies under academic affairs. "I'm confused as to why the University is treating LGBT people differently than any other minority," Grossman said.
Although not all involved think as Grossman does, some are upset that the LGBTQ Advisory Committee, which drafted the provost's office report, was not consulted before the decision was made.
