Guiding Principles

Mission

The LGBTQIA Resource Center supports the Institute's commitment to inclusive excellence by engaging the campus community in education, advocacy, and outreach for people of all genders and sexual identities.

Vision

We envision a campus community where people of all genders and sexual identities are respected and affirmed.

Core Values

Intersectionality

We recognize that gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation are interconnected and interdependent with race, ethnicity, disability, faith/spirituality, class, nationality, and immigration status. We work to create spaces where each person can fully embrace and express all facets of their identities and be their whole, authentic selves without judgment or condition by centering our work within an intersectional framework.

Healing, Reconciliation, and Liberation

We strive to heal the rifts that homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, heterosexism, and cissexism have created within our own communities. We recognize the ways in which LGBTQIA oppression is interconnected with racism, classism, ableism, sexism, and ageism. We work to heal the damage that these systems of oppression have perpetuated by:

  • Commemorating and celebrating LGBTQIA lives, experiences, accomplishments, relationships, and communities
  • Creating and protecting closed/exclusive spaces for marginalized groups to gather, work, and heal together
  • Centering queer voices in our work, including those that are the most silenced and marginalized
  • Adopting and promoting a culture of self-care for both students and employees
Intentional Community

We engage LGBTQIA people and allies in creating and fostering communities of belonging that sustain and uplift us by:

  • Encouraging members to hold themselves and others accountable for their words, assumptions, and actions
  • Uniting different groups under a shared vision of inclusion and justice
  • Creating protected spaces for unique community needs to foster a larger culture and framework for inclusion
  • Supporting our campus partners in creating inclusive and intentional communities across all areas of campus, including housing and residence life, Greek life, campus ministries, athletics, student organizations, academic and tutoring settings, offices, laboratories, and other work, study, and play spaces
  • Promoting allyship as both a desirable and necessary practice in which students and employees are invited and expected to engage
  • Striving for the highest degree of accessibility in all of our operations and spaces
Development and Futurity

We work with our vision and values at the forefront of our efforts to ensure the strategic growth and development of the Center. We value both individual and collective growth within our LGBTQIA communities on campus, and we foster such growth by:

  • Building a robust framework of allyship and accountability for our students, employees, and alumni
  • Promoting opportunities for experiential leadership, cultivating leadership of different styles and experiences, and centering leadership from within communities
  • Engaging alumni in fundraising, mentoring, leadership, and community building opportunities
  • Creating sustainable practices and infrastructure for the Center, its programs, and its student organizations to thrive
  • Pooling diverse resources with on- and off-campus partners
  • Identifying emerging leaders and providing opportunities for them to develop the knowledge and skills to take on leadership roles within their community