Friday’s meeting regarding a potential lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender center on campus was rescheduled due to poor turnout.
A few members of SafeZONE and the Associated Students of the University of Arizona attended the meeting with President Robert Shelton’s advisory committee, although all agreed that the turnout was not sufficient to reflect the campus community’s feeling on the subject.
Jason Crockett, a graduate student in sociology and a member of Shelton’s advisory committee, led the brief discussion, which was intended to be a focus group involving members of SafeZONE, ASUA, SPRITE, Outreach and Delta Lambda Pi, a gay fraternity.
Shelton established an LGBT center at his previous university, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which is similar to other student centers such as the African American Student Affairs or Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs.
Although the meeting has been postponed, some dialogue did take place between SafeZONE and ASUA members.
Both groups expressed interest in having monthly meetings between all the different LGBT advocacy groups on campus to open up better lines of communication, something that will be discussed at this week’s meeting.
Another issue that will be addressed at this week’s meeting is how to incorporate Pride Alliance and the other groups on campus into the LGBT center without eliminating the other organizations.
The next focus group will meet Friday at 2 p.m., in a location to be announced. The meeting is open to all campus community members.
