Mission & Goals

While gay advocates and defenders have made great strides in recent years in working to overcome homophobia and bigotry, there is still a long way to go for the gay community to be seen as equal to the heterosexual community in terms of rights, tolerance and understanding. To this end, the president formed the GLBT Advisory Committee, made up of faculty and staff, to ensure that Northeastern University continues to strive to make this a safe and comfortable place for all members of our community.

The President’s Advisory Committee on GLBT Issues is committed to supporting and advocating for the GLBT community at Northeastern University. We believe that in order to fulfill this role we must provide educational resources to the greater community, advocacy for GLBT issues and a forum to discuss ideas and concerns in order to strengthen and sustain an inclusive campus community that welcomes people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.

The President’s Advisory Committee on GLBT issues has established the following goals and initiatives as its focus for the 2005 – 2006 academic year.

Service & Stewardship

The GLBT Advisory Committee seeks to provide more service and stewardship to the Northeastern Community through the following means:

• GLBT Report Card: create a yearly publication which reports on the quality of life for GLBT faculty, staff and students. This publication will include the following information:

o Hate crime/incident statistics from across campus
o Demographic information on the number of GLBT faculty, staff, and students who self-disclose their sexual orientation on employment applications and through the university admissions process. Information to be collected by admissions offices and HRM.

• Needs Assessment:
o Provide a means in which units throughout the university can be assessed by external and internal constituencies.
o Provide a means for underwriting the effectiveness of AAO initiatives/support of GLBT issues.

• Search Committees: participate in search committees throughout the university to assist in the recruitment of GLBT faculty and staff.

Community Building & Education

The GLBT Advisory Committee seeks to build community and provide more educational opportunities to the Northeastern Community through the following means:

• GLBT Web Site: re-construct and update our web site in order to make it a more robust portal of GLBT life at Northeastern.
o Tool for membership recruitment
o Market GLBT related events on campus
o Provide a listing of campus and off campus resources

• Committee Membership: market the committee through flyers and the web site to increase our membership ranks

• Student Groups: continue to work with the various student groups and provide the necessary support for their growth and development

• Speaker Program: create a speaker program which can be used to provide education and training to units throughout the university.

• GLBT Center: demonstrate the need for the creation of a GLBT Center.

• Transgender Education: provide more opportunities on campus to continue the dialogue surrounding services for transgender students, faculty and staff.

o More training on trans issues for committee members
o Provide training for university units, especially at points of service

GLBT Activism

Issues that affect the GLBT community both on campus and off, affect us all in many ways. The committee recognizes that there are a variety of viewpoints on issues and we seek to promote healthy debate in our community - not to devise a platform for ourselves.

• Discrimination: provide opportunities for discussion regarding issues in which the GLBT community faces discrimination by the government, employers and the general population.

• Gays in the Military: provide opportunities for discussion of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the military.

• Gay Marriage: provide opportunities for members of our community to come together in discuss the ways in which gay marriage rights affect members of the GLBT community.

• Gay education in schools: provide opportunities for discussion regarding sex education in schools and state and federal funding of programs which discuss homosexuality.