UW News

April 22, 2004

Flexing ‘Q’ muscles: April 26 meeting will seek input on new center to serve sexual minorities

UW News

A planned new resource center for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students, faculty and staff will start small but may have a big future, says Jennifer Self, the Social Work graduate student hired to run the center when it opens this fall.


But first, Self says, the idea needs interest and involvement from the campus community. An open meeting is scheduled for 6–8 p.m. Monday, April 26, in the third floor commons of the School of Social work, to gather just that.


The Q Center, as it will be called, is scheduled to open in 755 square feet of remodeled office space on the fourth floor of Schmitz Hall this fall. A part-time salary for Self and $5,000 in annual operating costs will be provided by offices of the UW Vice President for Student Affairs and the Vice President for Minority Affairs to give the office a start.


Self said the Q (for Queer) Center will be open to anyone questioning or exploring their sexual orientation, those along the transgender spectrum and members of the Native American Two-Spirit population, as well as friends and allies of those groups. The center will be an on-campus resource for classroom and departmental speakers, research and stereotype-busting information for use throughout the UW.


“It’s all about space, safety, support, resources and advocacy,” said Self, an experienced therapist and consultant on domestic violence, prejudice reduction and sexual identity development. But while she said the Q Center will start with those modest goals, she hopes it will grow into a larger campus role in time, as other centers for student populations have over the years.


“What it could offer, at this point, is in the imagination of those involved,” she said. “I want it to grow to answer what the newest needs are.”


Self said she hopes input from the April 26 meeting will help clarify what the campus wants and needs from such a resource and how the Q Center might respond to those needs. The meeting also will be the starting point in the process of forming a volunteer advisory board of students (graduate and undergraduate), faculty, staff and community members for the Q Center, Self said.


“It’s designed to be informal, to catch everybody up” on the status of the planned center, she said.


The decision to create such a center came from a 2001 report by the President’s Task Force on Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian and Transgender Issues titled “Affirming Diversity: Moving from Tolerance to Acceptance and Beyond.”


The center will take its place in helping to reduce prejudice and oppression against people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, Self said, just as multicultural centers have helped open minds to campus diversity in the past.


“Living under any form of oppression really oppresses us all in the long run,” she said.


And though the Q Center is still a few months away from opening, Self said she looks forward to a future where gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals are accepted without question or prejudice.


“I’d love to work myself out of a job,” she said.

To learn more about the Q Center: Call the Student Activities and Union Facilities Office at 206-543-8131 or e-mail Jennifer Self at qcenter@u.washington.edu.