U.Va. hires full-time
advocate
for lesbian, gay
students
By DIONNE WALKER, AP
from dailypress.com on the Web, November 13, 2005
RICHMOND, Va. -- Aiming to
better serve sexual minority students, the University of Virginia has hired the
school's first full-time program coordinator for its Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender Resource Center.
Joy Pugh will manage student support groups and other activities offered through
the six-year-old center, said Shamim Sisson, senior associate dean of students.
Her appointment follows a three-month national search.
The Charlottesville center provides support to up to 2,000 lesbian, gay,
bisexual or transgender students it estimates to be on campus.
Until last year, it was directed by graduate students, limiting operation to
roughly 20 hours a week, Sisson said. That also created a revolving door
of managers who had to learn the ropes every year.
The center tried a full-time worker on a trial basis last year, and
administrators approved a permanent position over the summer.
"(We) knew if we had the level of continuity of a professional staff member from
year to year, we would be able to provide the level of service we needed,"
Sisson said.
Pugh, 27, comes to U.Va. from James Madison University, where she worked as a
service specialist with the university honors program and was a graduate
assistant aiding in new student orientation and diversity.
She graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at
Charlotte, and a master's from James Madison.
Pugh will oversee support groups such as QueerGrads, an LGBT graduate student
group; SafeSpace, which prepares instructors to counsel LGBT students; and the
center's LGBT speaker program.
She'll fill a position that's become increasingly common on American campuses,
said Brad Luna, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest
gay rights advocacy organization. LGBT coordinators have been hired at the
University of Wisconsin, Madison, the University of California, Santa Barbara,
and the University of New Hampshire.
"People are beginning to see that there is a diversity amongst the student
population," said Luna, calling such centers vital to encouraging discussion and
promoting tolerance.
Pugh said she aims to expand beyond campus, strengthening relationships between
the LGBT community and Charlottesville.
Her appointment comes amid continued efforts to combat campus intolerance.
In September, U.Va. President John T. Casteen III held a meeting to address a
spate of racial incidents on campus, including one in which vandals wrote racial
epithets outside a dorm room and an apartment.
Fourth-year student David Reid said he's experienced anti-gay harassment around
campus, including an incident in which a group of men told him to "get AIDS ...
and (expletive) die."
"The hiring of a new director is definitely a good sign," said Reid, who is gay.
"I think this is just another sign of the administration taking the right
steps."
A chief officer for diversity and equity -- another first for the
Charlottesville campus -- began Nov. 1. Pugh started Oct. 24.
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