Pitt students push for LGBTQIA Center on campus

A student-produced report and petition are circulating the University of Pittsburgh and surrounding communities to persuade university officials to create an LGBTQIA+ Center – a place that would offer information, resources and community for Pitt students and others.

Tyler Viljaste, a Pitt junior and vice president and chief of cabinet of the student government, came out as bisexual his freshman year. Without a centralized location for resources and tools to go to, he said he didn’t really know how to approach the subject with his family and friends. He was lucky to have friends who were understanding and supportive, he said, but looking back, he wishes he knew where to go to seek professional advice.

“It was certainly overwhelming, and I feel like a lot of people in this community share that same story,” Viljaste said. “I wish, looking back, that I would have had some place or something to turn to. I wish those resources would have been more available to me.”

His experience was a contributing factor in his decision to run for student government and form the LGBTQIA+ Task Force, consisting of more than 80 students, faculty and staff, broken into several committees.

“Pitt is one, among our peer institutions … one of the few – if not the only institutions at our level – that does not have a dedicated resource center, a physical space on campus dedicated to LGBTQIA+ students,” Viljaste said.

Pitt has a plethora of student groups, services and programs geared toward people in the LGBTQIA+ community: a Center for LGBT Health Research, Pride Health, an LGBTQ studies minor, Pitt Queer Professionals and many others.

But, the “2021 Report on the Status of LGBTQIA+ Resources at the University of Pittsburgh” claims, there isn’t much coordination among the groups or “visible” staff members specifically dedicated to LGBTQIA+ student services.

“Resources for LGBTQIA+ persons at Pitt are both non-comprehensive, but also disaggregated, and I think that contributes to a lot of frustration on students’ ends, because they don’t know where to look or the resources that they’re looking for don’t exist in the first place,” Viljaste said.

The lack of a centralized location puts added strain on organizations outside the university, Viljaste said, as well as places additional burden on Pitt’s own LGBTQIA+ professors and staff. He noted employees that have gone through allies training or are openly “out,” have taken on “a lot of excess emotional labor” as they mentor students.

In addition to a dedicated LGBTQIA+ Center, the report also proposes the hiring of more LGBTQIA+ staff positions to “lighten the load,” recommends new and updated services and lays out a timeline for implementing changes. The task force asks that the center include a corresponding digital website with online resources, and also provide a “safe space” for LGBTQIA+ students – offering counseling, meeting space, events and other community services.

The center would benefit not just Pitt, but the surrounding community in Allegheny County, as well, Viljaste contends.

The report, released earlier this month, has been in the works since last semester. Now, in addition to inviting both Pitt students and people outside the university to sign a petition in support of the project, the task force is asking for feedback from students and administration. Viljaste said the report is a “living document” that authors are continuously updating. He hopes to continue collecting signatures over the course of the next few weeks and meeting with university administrators near the end of May.

“We can edit the document in real time, and as we continue to circulate the document as different student groups, faculty groups or different individuals read the report, they can offer us feedback,” he said.

Kevin Zwick, a university spokesman, said administrators are in “an ongoing dialogue” with the task force.

“Pitt is committed to ensuring that all members of the LGBTQIA+ community feel safe, respected, and valued on campus,” he said. “We encourage all students, faculty and staff to be familiar with University and community resources.”

Zwick shared several webpages of existing resources for students, including information about groups both on and off campus, counseling and student health services for LGBTQIA+ students and guidelines for promoting an inclusive community.

Viljaste is aware of the challenges facing the project – most obvious being a limit to physical space available on Pitt’s existing campus. But the task force sees this project as a priority for addressing the needs of a significant portion of the university community, Viljaste said, and he is optimistic.

“College is time when a lot of people come to realize their own identities, sexual identities or otherwise,” he said. “This is a huge, huge thing for a lot of college students, and the fact that those resources don’t really exist is a problem.”