UISG voted on a resolution that proposed to voice its support for the development of a new LGBTQ+ community called ‘All In’ for the 2017-18 academic year.
By Elianna Novitch
The University of Iowa Student Government passed a resolution on Tuesday to voice its support for the development of a new LGBTQ+ Living Learning Community called “All In” for the 2017-18 academic year.
The new learning community was created in partnership between members of UI queer student organizations and University Housing & Dining.
UI will be the last Big Ten institution to implement a resource such as this for the LGBTQ+ community.
According to UISG Sen. Sean Finn, all other schools in the Big Ten have either gender-inclusive housing or a living community with an LGBTQ+ focus.
Finn was an author of the legislation that passed Tuesday and was involved with the establishment of the new learning community. Finn is also president of the Trans Alliance club at UI.
“I think this is a long-overdue LLC to have included at the university. I think that ‘All In’ will be very successful and it is a great first step in more inclusive housing living situations for students,” he said.
The All In community has been approved for the 2017-18 school year by UI Housing & Dining.
“As we have seen so many times on our campus, there are many students who feel marginalized because of the identities they hold, including our students who identify as LGBTQ+,” said Assistant Director for Community Development Amy Baumgartner in an email to The Daily Iowan. “The intent of this community is to have a place where our LGBTQ+ students feel welcomed and accepted, are connected to campus resources as they make a home here, and where they can celebrate their identity.”
The name for the learning community came from the idea of being all inclusive. According to the official description page on Housing’s website, “This community welcomes and is open to all students who seek to strengthen knowledge and empowerment of LGBTQ+ students.”
“We want primarily queer people to be living on the floor because they are the ones who need access to the resources it can provide, but we are still trying to figure out how to balance that with letting someone who is a devoted ally,” said UI student Harrison Freund. “The important thing is to serve the people who need to be served.”
Last semester, the UI announced another new learning community called “Young, Gifted, and Black” that incoming students were able to live in this academic year.
Some concerns were raised regarding whether the learning community would segregate and isolate students who chose to live on that floor.
When asked if similar concerns of controversy applied to the “All In” learning community, Baumgartner said in an email to The Daily Iowan, “I hope that this community will cause folks to think about why a community like this is necessary on a campus like Iowa’s and will hopefully challenge them to shift their perspective.
“If there are people out there who may feel excluded in some way from this community, I would challenge them to think about how their experience as a student, and even a person in the world, might be different than a student who identifies as LGBTQ+.”
Details like location and occupancy size for the new learning community are still being worked out. Finn said one important issue is its closeness to the LGBTQ Resource Center.
“One of the key parts of the LLC is that it is going to be close to the LGBTQ Resource Center so that it fosters a sense of community and that common space that is important to this community,” he said.
Another detail that is in the works is how gender will work with rooming on the floor.
“There have been recent changes to how we might approach gender for All In and just housing in general in the future,” Finn said. “It’s really up in the air still but you can expect that the LLC isn’t just going to be dictated by sex assigned at birth.”
A group of students and staff will continue to meet on a regular basis to discuss the community and make decisions on the direction of the learning community as the year goes on.
“My hope is that students [who live in the community] will be able to come to the university confident that they are going to have roommates and be on a floor that understands and accepts them for who they are and what they are,” Freund said.
“I want them to have the opportunity to be integrated into an awesome and loving community not just on their floor but outside that as well in different student organizations and at the University of Iowa in general,” he said.
