Although the Safe Space Campaign has been a part of the University’s LGBTQ outreach since 2001, the University’s Office of Multicultural Affairs debuted a new version of the program Saturday at the Sixth Annual Multicultural Student Leadership Conference.
“When I came in August, I did an assessment and saw some ways we could improve the program,” said LGBTQ Project Coordinator Chad Freeman, who presented the updates Saturday.
Freeman said Safe Spaces works to make the University a comfortable environment for all students, faculty and staff regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
The Safe Space Campaign is an advocacy and support system.
“If students feel afraid to come to campus, they’re not going to come to campus, and they’re not going to succeed on campus,” Freeman said.
The program originally began at New York University in the 1980s and has now expanded to include schools, even grades K-12, throughout the country, Freeman said.
Schools adapt the original program to fit the unique needs of their campus.
The University’s updated Safe Space program includes three main goals: increasing visibility, advocacy and education.
One tangible outcome of these changes will be a campus map designating offices or buildings on campus as safe spaces. These areas will be labeled with small triangles, a symbol of the Safe Space Campaign.
An online, interactive version of the map will become available on the Office of Multicultural Affairs website later in the school year. The online version will include names and contact information of faculty and staff who are Safe Space trained.
Training can be administered to groups or individuals. Registration for the new program begins today on the Office of Multicultural Affairs website.
Safe Space training is a three-hour program, comprised of three 50-minute sessions separated with short breaks.
Training begins with an overview of LGBTQ terminology and ends with a panel discussion.
Since the program began on campus in 2001, trained faculty and students have cycled in and out of the University, and today there are around 300 people that have received training still on campus.
Freeman plans to reach out to those 300 individuals so they can update their training, and he also wants to involve new individuals and groups from around campus.
Carl Bakenhus, a music junior, attended the conference and said he was interested in registering for the Safe Space program.
“I was skeptical at first, but in the end, it does make an impact,” Bakenhus said.
