In an attempt to address the issues of its lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community, Georgetown University will create the position of Coordinator of LGBTQ Resources, Vice President for Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez said yesterday in an interview with campus media. The part-time position will involve working with LGBTQ campus groups to help meet their needs on various levels and facilitate their interactions with the university administration, Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez announced the creation of the new position at a meeting Wednesday with the LGBTQ Working Group, comprised of seven staff members and seven students. He said the position will be separate from that of special assistant to the vice president, another new post that was originally intended to address LGBTQ concerns among its other responsibilities. Meeting attendees said Gonzalez is planning to appoint Mary Dluhy to the position, a candidate the group had interviewed over the summer. Dluhy is currently president emerita, founder and chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Clinical Social Work Institute in Washington, D.C. Her responsibilities would include “coordinating group dynamics” by working with student organizations on campus, Gonzalez said.
In assessing candidates for the LGBTQ Coordinator position, Gonzalez and Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson said that experience working with LGBTQ issues, group dynamics and “clinical expertise” would be especially important. The creation of a position devoted entirely to LBGTQ issues were a response to “the need to provide for LGBTQ students directly and clearly,” Olson said.
He and members of the Working Group, he said, would work on the “logistics” of hiring an LGBTQ coordinator, such as creating a job description and publicizing the opening, which will be done on a national level. “We’re going to work as quickly as we reasonably can,” he said, adding that he hoped to fill the position by the end of the spring semester.
“The Working Group in general was pretty happy that a coordinator position would be [created],” GU Pride General Secretary and Working Group member Chris Trott (SFS ’03) said. “We feel like we’re getting more of what we wanted with that.”
GU Pride Co-President and Working Group member Danielle DeCerbo (COL ’03) said issues the new coordinator could work on would be “centralizing resources and services, keeping data on the [LGBTQ] population and noting [LGBTQ] issues, particularly health issues.”
“I’m hoping the coordinator could serve as more of a central point,” Trott said. He said he hoped he or she would “advocate LGBTQ programs and raise visibility” of the community on campus.
Gonzalez first announced that the university would hire a new staff member to address LGBTQ concerns last March. The new administrator, he said, would “advise Student Affairs and assist the university on how best to support and further dialogue around the topic of sexual identity for all students . [and] provide assistance to students as they attempt to clarify issues related to sexual orientation, personal growth and related psychological and developmental issues.”
The announcement followed his rejection of a proposal by GU Pride and other supporters to establish an LGBTQ resource center on campus last February. In a two-page letter presented to student supporters, Gonzalez cited the center’s potential to “unavoidably lead to advocacy of sexual behavior outside the context of traditional marriage,” which would conflict with Catholic doctrine, as integral to his final decision.
Yesterday, Gonzalez maintained that the creation of an LBGTQ Coordinator would be in keeping with Georgetown’s Catholic tradition of cura personalis, or care for the whole person. “Once we accept students, it doesn’t matter to us [who you] are,” Gonzalez said. “Once you’re part of the family, we need to go as far as we can to help you succeed, to help you become the person you want to become without making judgments about it.” He added that at the same time, “We will not be in a position of advocating for that lifestyle.”
Trott noted that the LGBTQ coordinator position would not necessarily satisfy those members of the Georgetown community who had advocated last spring for a resource center, but “if we hire a good enough person . Maybe somewhere later down the road, there’ll be a resource center.”
Other developments at the Working Group meeting included the announcement that the Student Primary Care clinic will begin administering free, confidential and anonymous HIV testing; the type of test – blood or oral – had not yet been determined. The clinic is aiming to begin this service in January.
