LGBTQ programs seek to increase campus visibility for community

Photo: The rainbow flag, a symbol of LGBTQ pride, waves through an opened door that was constructed at the National Coming Out Day resource and information fair Monday on the South Oval.
Audio clip: LGBTQ Advisory Board member Bobby Mace talks about the board's programs this month. Monday's National Coming Out Day fair (which he discusses in this clip) is the first the group has organized, and worked with other campus/community groups to co-host events throughout October.

   OU's LGBTQ community will recognize National Coming Out Day Monday morning with a resource and information fair for students on the South Oval, starting OU's observance of Norman's GLBT History Month.

   The program, which lasts from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., is the first National Coming Out Day program that the Student Affairs' Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) Advisory Board has planned for the nationally annual event, during which closeted students are positively encouraged to come out.

   The National Coming Out Day resource fair is one of the several events the board has planned with other campus groups in October. Future programs include booked Sooner Ally trainings on Tuesday and Nov. 6, a candlelight vigil for LGBTQ acceptance on Wednesday and a showing of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" on Friday, Oct. 29. 

Audio Clip: Mace says how organizations should 

reach out to all students on campus.

   This month's LGBTQ programs come on the heels of UOSA and the Norman City Council both passing proclamations last month declaring October to be GLBT History Month. According to the Oklahoma Daily, Student Congress passed the resolution with unanimous consent and the city council 7-1.

   The advisory board collaborated with other local organizations, including OU student organizations GLBTF, United Students and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association, to give students as many resources as possible about Coming Out Day.

   The advisory board started planning more events this year, one member said, after previous years' have lacked involvement and visibility with other groups on campus. 

   Bobby Mace, who works in the Women's Outreach Center office as an LGBTQ Affairs intern, said the program's members realized the board needed to reach out to other communities after it did a campus climate survey earlier this year.

   "So we're basically taking what the students have told us what they wanted, and doing those things," said Mace, an adult and higher education graduate student. "If you're going to program to just the students of GLBTF, then it ignores so many different groups of people."

Students talk about the program with members of the LGBTQ 
Program Advisory Board at Monday's fair.

   Mace became involved in the center through the Sexperts program his sophomore year. As a then-resident adviser, he was the only openly gay employee on staff. But Mace said things have changed so much for the community since he was a freshman because there was not as much visibility on campus and the GLBTF student organization was more divided. 

   "We've just been doing so much in this past semester alone that the change from my freshman year to now ... it wouldn't even seem like the same universe to me," he said.
   Mace said it is especially important for all campus organizations to meet students' needs when they are in college. To accomplish this vision of improving overall student life, the advisory board has specific goals that reach the entire OU community, like more visibility and programming.

   "It's obviously important that we [in the LGBTQ community] recognize our allies, because without our allies, we obviously wouldn't have a lot going on for us at OU," he said."I know that doesn't really seem like a way to get people to realize, but having the increased visibility and the increased programming on campus really does help people to realize that OU is a safe place."

   Mace said he has already contacted more than 40 student groups to get involved with Wednesday's candlelight vigil, which will be in the Unity Garden on the South Oval.

Updated: Monday at 6:30 p.m. with photos of Monday's National Coming Out Day resource fair.

Current list of student organizations

Check it out: Student Organizations Coordinator Carmen Bao sent this link today of the list of current student orgs. on OU's campus.
There are 432 different organizations for interested students to choose from.

OU students have until Thursday to register campus organizations

Students listen to Dr. Eric Day speak about applying 

to graduate school at the OU Psychology Club's 

meeting Thursday, Sept. 23.

OU students looking to start or re-register a student organization have until this Thursday, Sept. 30 to submit the online registration to Student Life.

The required registration information comprises having at least 10 student members, an OU faculty adviser, an organization president, a current constitution and statement of purpose and alcohol event management information.

According to Student Life’s student organization section, the University of Oklahoma has more than 420 student organizations, with interests that include academic, religion, culture, honor societies and hobbies. 

“With such a large number of organizations to choose from, you can be sure to find one (or several!) that you will enjoy,” the website states for those looking to join an organization. The website also suggests students start a group if they don’t find one that fits their needs.

Registered student organizations receive benefits including an OU website and e-mail address, a mailbox in the Oklahoma Memorial Union, department sponsorships and the ability to reserve university facilities and publicize on campus through chalking and fliers.

OU’s Psychology Club President Victoria Carrasco said she joined clubs her freshman year because she loves being involved and finding connections outside of class through professors.

“I love that feeling of letting people know what else is out there … and [what] they don’t get from just coming and having that major and going to class,” said Carrasco, a psychology junior who is also in OU's Young Democrats, Pre-Law Club and Hispanic-American Student Association. “I think people really do get surprised when they do come and they actually learn valuable information they can take with them.”

The Psychology Club, which reaches out to psychology students to provide them with opportunities at OU and after graduation with guest speakers and forums, has already turned in its registration and constitution.

More than 45 undergraduate students attended the club’s Thursday, Sept. 23 meeting to hear associate psychology professor Dr. Eric Day talk about getting into graduate school.

The club meets every other Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in Dale Hall Tower room 908. Its next meeting on Oct. 7 will have graduate students speaking about life in grad school.

Carrasco said starting a new club, however, is a lot more difficult at OU than running an existing organization like the Psychology Club. The best advice she has is getting to know people through other clubs to find the potential membership and to get an idea of how a club runs.

“The second you get involved in other clubs, you’re just meeting people right there, and you get that experience,” she said. “[Running a club] is a big responsibility…but obviously you gotta love doing it.”

If students are looking to join an existing club, Student Life encourages them to use its list of student organizations to contact the organization’s president or adviser and attend its next meeting or event. 

Look for a Q&A about student organizations at OU with Student Life’s Student Organization Coordinator Carmen Bao sometime Monday.