LGBTQA director leaves
Replacing Maure Smith-Benanti, former program director for the LGBTQA office at USU, will be no easy task for the Access and Diversity Center.
“We have very big shoes to fill, so make sure that we can get the biggest size feet we can get in those shoes.” Access and Diversity Director Michelle Bogdan said.
Bogdan met with student leaders in July to discuss what they want in a new coordinator, and how to run things until he or she gets hired. It was decided to make the job posting a 30-day statewide search.
Smith-Benanti, who is held in high regard by many students who have come to the office for help, left her post this summer to go work with the LGBTQA office at the University of Oregon.
“I know that it was very difficult for a lot of us for Maure to leave,” Bogdan said. “We were all really tight with her, and so I know this is hard. There’s no point in not acknowledging that.”
Students in the LGBTQA office said in an interview they would like to see someone they can easily relate to, and while it doesn’t mean the future program coordinator must come from a conservative, Christian background, it certainly would help. Someone who is sensitive to the cultural climate in Utah is important.
“Regardless of who we have it’s going to be different,” Ian Masen, a junior in biology, said.
Students at the meeting stressed the importance of finding someone who is understands national as well as local LGBTQA issues.
Smith-Benanti’s position was a sort of jack-of-all trades for LGBTQA concerns on campus, the students said. She was an advocate, ran the office, set up discussion panels, was advisor to the LIFE club and managed the library in the LGBTQA office.
When asked what sort of qualities they wanted to see in the new coordinator, students in the office often referred to Smith-Benanti. Finding someone who is understanding, a good counselor and an advocate is important, they said.
“One thing Maure can do that I thought was really good was she could stop a fight,” said Matt Volk, a junior in speech communications.
Kennedy Tripp, a junior in business, said Maure knew the ins and outs of legal issues a lot of LGBTQA students might face, and it’s a good idea for whoever is hired to know them as well.
While the new coordinator could be straight, it would be a lot more difficult as a job, Volk said.
“They [the program coordinator] have to do outreach and counseling,” Volk said.
“I would really like to see a new program coordinator come in and really teach the students to have a voice,” Bryce Sprosty, a senior in marketing, said.
The coordinator also needs to be good at understanding people from all walks of life, Tripp said.
Since Smith-Benanti left, the students of the LGBTQA office have been without an official director, but Bogdan has been serving as their interim director, and said the students are doing fine.
“What’s really cool is we’ve had people step up and stay pretty strong,” said Bryce Sprosty, a senior in marketing. “I think if we don’t find someone soon it’ll get burnt out and be a step back for our community.”
At the meeting students requested a temporary structure to help LGBTQA matters be set up. During the first month of school many students are dealing with the transition of ‘coming out’ and need a place to come to for advice and counseling.
“I feel confident in our Access and Diversity staff, that we can help any student who walks in that door,” Bogdan said. “We all have to be willing to pull together and collaborate, including with LIFE, and we need to be willing to collaborate.”
Love Is For Everyone, or LIFE, is a student club that works to educate and bring others together in regards to sexual orientation and other LGBTQA matters.
The job posting for a new coordinator will close at the end of September, Sprosty said, and a student and faculty panel will then be set up to help screen candidates.
Vice president for Student Services Eric Olsen, who was also at the July meeting, said it was important to him that they take the time to find the right person.
“Let’s do it right and get the right person,” Olsen said.
— la.stewart@aggiemail.usu.edu