Date: 9 Sep 1994 11:13:45 -0700 From: "Mills Mike" Colorado Daily (Boulder, Colorado) Weekend, September 9-11, 1994 Center for homosexuals is not ready to open yet By Kendall Slee Colorado Daily Staff Writer A gay, lesbian and bisexual resource center scheduled to open at CU this summer has postponed its opening until January, but it still needs more than $10,000 in donations before that time. Supporters of the center were forced to come up with private funding for it this spring, after former CU-Boulder Chancellor James Corbridge was pressured by the CU Board of Regents to withdraw $60,000 in funding he had pledged to the center. At the same April meeting where Corbridge withdrew the funds, four of the six regents present voted in a measure that would prevent a proposed change in CU's student insurance to allow heterosexual and homosexual students to purchase health insurance for their "domestic partners." Student leaders on CU's Boulder campus condemned the action as "homophobic." Private donations for the center are being collected by the CU Foundation. Donations should reach about $20,000 within the next two weeks, said Joanne Arnold, chair of the Chancellor's Standing Committee on Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues, which is overseeing the center's establishment. Organizers hope to raise $30,000, which will be matched by an anonymous contributor to make $60,000 total, she said. The center will be housed in Willard Hall, as part of Counseling and Career Services: A Multicultural Center. The establishment of a center for gays, lesbians and bisexuals was one of several actions recommended by a Chancellor's Task Force on Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues in a 1993 report on the Boulder campus climate. "In general, the idea is to serve as a resource for heterosexual as well as homosexual faculty, students and staff," said Karen Raforth of the multicultural center. The Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Resource Center will help gay organizations coordinate programs, connect gays and lesbians who feel isolated on campus, train faculty and staff on how to be sensitive to the needs of gays and lesbians, and help develop academic resources on campus for gay studies, she said. Corey Simpson, coordinator of a student group called the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgendered Alliance, said the creation of the center will relieve his organization from having to do a lot of coordinating with other groups in the gay community, and from having to get basic information out to students on resources in the community. "It's going to take a lot of the burden of groups like LBGTA. It will allow us to focus more on outreach and programming," he said. A part-time staff director, a part-time faculty member and student assistants will be hired to run the center, Raforth said. A search committee is being formed to select the faculty and staff member, she said. =-=-=-=-= If you would like to help get this important resource off the ground, please send a contribution to: CU Foundation, Campus Box 462 University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309. Your check should be made out to CU Foundation and where the check says "Memo" or "For" it MUST say LBG Center. As always, this gift to the University is tax deductible. It is clearly important to designate the gift for the GLB Center. -Mike