A $1 million donation to the LGBTQ Resource Center will help expand its presence on campus according to its director, Sivagami Subbaraman.

Chairman of the Board of Directors Paul Tagliabue (CAS ’62) and his wife, Chandler, allocated one-fifth of their $5 million donation to the center as part of the capital campaign drive two weekends ago.

“This is an opportunity to elevate the conversation around gay issues to be a Georgetown issue,” Subbaraman said. “Tagliabue realizes that it is not a narrow issue in a corner — it is relevant to all of campus.”

Dubbed “The Tagliabue Initiative for LGBTQ Life: Fostering Formation and Transformation,” the push will fund work by students and student organizations to make the campus more accepting as well as establish an advisory group comprised of faculty, staff, students and alumni.

“The way I see it, LGBTQ life is not separate from or apart from all other diversity on campus,” Subbaraman said. “For me, Georgetown’s Jesuit identity means allowing flourishing. Gay students have not always had to right to or the ability to flourish.”

Subbaraman hopes to use the money to bring high-level speakers to campus and involve more student groups in promoting campus diversity. For her, this is critical to countering the perception that the donation is going to a marginal group.

“I think it’s really important for all students to know that the endowment is for all students to live in a better community,” she said.

In a statement to the university, the Tagliabues wrote that they hope the gift will help establish a safe and inclusive environment on campus.

In a statement to the university, the Tagliabues wrote that they hope the gift will help establish a safe and inclusive environment on campus.

“The center is inspired by Catholic and Jesuit principles of respect for the dignity of all and education of the whole person, and we are very pleased to support its services,” they wrote.

Paul Tagliabue received a scholarship to play basketball at Georgetown, graduating as both a Dean’s List student and president of his senior class. He graduated from New York University School of Law in 1965. Before beginning his term on the board of directors, Tagliabue served as commissioner of the National Football League.

Subbaraman said that Tagliabue is proud of the center, both as a member of the university community and as the father of an openly gay son, Drew, who serves as executive director of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays in New York City.

James Saucedo (MSB ’13), the treasurer of student organization GU Pride, also said the donation is critical to fostering a community of acceptance and awareness at Georgetown in the coming years.

“The donation is such an amazing way to kick off the Campaign for Georgetown,” he said. “So much of our understanding of what the university will be like in 10 or 20 years depends on what financial resources we have now.”

Subbaraman hopes that the Tagliabues’ donation will set a precedent to encourage all parents, gay or straight, to support their children by working to improve campus life.

“Traditionally, high levels of giving go to buildings or academic programs,” Subbaraman said. “Because Paul and [Chandler’s] donation is going to need-based scholarships and athletic scholarships as well as the LGBTQ center, it raises student life and affairs to the same level of priority, which is essential for the health of the entire campus.”

The first of its kind at a Catholic university, the LGBTQ Resource Center was established in 2008 in the wake of a student campaign, Out for Change, spurred by an anti-gay hate crime on campus.

Subbaraman said that while the center has grown rapidly since its establishment, she hopes that one day it will become more than just a resource center for students.

“In the three short years since we’ve been established, there have been visible, dramatic changes on campus. I don’t even recognize the place anymore,” she said. “My dream is to build on this endowment, so that one day we will have a full-fledged research center, unique to Georgetown, where scholars can publish on topics at the intersection of LGBTQ topics and interfaith topics.”