Feb 29, 2008  |  By: CHRIS JOHNSON  | COMMENTS     

Gay students and faculty at Georgetown University may be able to breathe easier now that the school has launched several new initiatives aimed at better accommodating the campus gay community.

The establishment of a gay resource center and the development of a framework to report “incidents of intolerance” are two major initiatives that Georgetown is undertaking, according to a Feb. 7 letter by University President John DeGioia and Provost James O’Donnell.

Georgetown is launching these new initiatives following anti-gay incidents that took place on campus last fall, including an apparent gay-bashing and campus police interference with a gay student group event.

Tommasso Astarita, a gay Georgetown history professor, said the fall incidents created a “sense of urgency” that “seem to have been kind of the sparks for the decision to start a different approach and a different process.”

Astarita, along with other faculty, signed a letter in October 2007 expressing support for gay students and calling for university administrators to address their grievances. The professor was also a member of one of the working groups that developed the new initiatives.

“If things go reasonably the way that they seem to be going, [the changes are] going to be a pretty major turning point for the university and for the gay community on the campus,” he said.

The gay resource center will be established in the next academic year, the letter states. The center will have two full-time staff, funding for programming and an accessible campus location.

Astarita said the creation of the resource center is the most important initiative that Georgetown is undertaking. The center will be “a catalyst for all sorts of other things and programs and it will give kind of institutional legitimacy to the whole idea of the university [being] committed to its gay members,” Astarita said.

Last October, campus police prevented gay student group members from delivering to the university president a gay rights petition calling for the creation of the resource center. Georgetown officials said police were restricting access to the administration building because a special event was taking place inside.

A search committee consisting of students, staff and representation from the gay community is conducting a search for the resource center director.

Georgetown spokesperson Julie Green Bataille said the university is seeking a director “with working knowledge of fundamental principles of college student development in general and the development of LGBTQ identities during the college years in particular.”

The director should also be familiar with Catholic and Jesuit tradition and values in higher education, she said.

The new common framework for reporting “incidents of intolerance,” such as gay bashings, will alert the university community when such incidents take place on or near campus.

“We hope it will be even more clear that Georgetown University does not tolerate homophobia or any other form of discrimination,” the letter states.

Last September, Philip Cooney, a Georgetown sophomore, was arrested for allegedly assaulting another student near campus after shouting anti-gay names at him. (See related story, Page 10.) Students organized a protest early in October for they what perceived to be Georgetown’s failure to alert students about the incident.

Bataille said the new system would be able to provide public safety alerts 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Special representatives are included in the review process to help determine when an incident requires community notification, she said.

“These individuals are trained and have experience working with individuals who are victims of sexual assault, hate or bias and can provide supportive resources,” she said.

Another initiative is creating a “university-wide committee” geared toward identifying and addressing gay issues, the letter states. The university administration is also developing an implementation plan for other recommendations the working groups developed, such as those that “call for specific efforts to address LGBTQ needs and perspectives in areas such as admissions, athletics, study-abroad and counseling,” the letter states.

Georgetown University Pride, the gay campus student group, did not respond to requests for comment.