The list, compiled by BestColleges.com, ranked UNM number 17 in the nation for LGBTQ college students based on high levels of support and innovative resources at the university, according to the website.
“The LGBTQ Resource Center at UNM provides a significant array of services, such as hosting awareness events, conducting Safe Zone training, providing safe sex resources and hosting educational lectures at cafes,” the website stated.
Alma Rosa Silva-Bañuelos, director of the LGBTQ Resource Center, said it is quite an accomplishment to have UNM on the list.
“We are incredibly excited and honored to be recognized on the top 30 list across the nation,” she said. “I’ve been working diligently over the last four years to make sure that we are up to par with national resource centers, to ensure that we’re providing the best service to UNM staff and faculty. I do have to say, this effort would not have happened without all of the dedicated time and commitment from our student staff and all of our allies across campus.”
The LGBTQ Resource Center started in 2010, when in the previous year the Queer-Straight Alliance, along with other student groups, realized there was no visibility, resources or support services for the LGBTQ community at UNM, Silva-Bañuelos said.
They approached Josephine De Leon, vice president for Equity and Inclusion, about finding a unit to house them on campus.
After De Leon agreed to house the group, they went to the Board of Regents, who agreed to approve funding for an official resource center, she said, hiring Silva-Bañuelos as director.
Within the first year, the program grew into a full-on department, she said.
The department offers various services and information to students and faculty alike.
“We offer several things: we offer visibility, advocacy, education and safety for LGBTQ and allied students, staff and faculty across campus,” she said. “Now part of our mission and part of our work is to try and integrate all departments on campus to have some kind of cultural competency of LGBTQ.”
Part of that mission includes the newly printed “Out and Ally List,” a full-page ad in the Daily Lobo, she said.
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The list is a compilation of faculty, staff and instructors who have pledged to act as allies to LGBTQ members of the UNM community across the various departments, according to the resource center’s website.
The center also provides Safe Zone training, a four-hour course that delves into how to be an ally along with appropriate terminology and education on different types of hate, negativity and phobias, Silva-Bañuelos said.
“Individuals who complete a Safe Zone training will be able to mark their offices or work spaces with a Safe Zone sticker, showing students that these locations are safe spaces for them,” according to the website. “Doing so can also provide a greater sense of safety and support among LGBTQ individuals on campus.”
The resource center is opening a satellite office in Gallup in the spring, she said.
Frankie Flores, a UNM student and program assistant at the center, said with the recognition from BestColleges.com and the new expansion, the center couldn’t be more satisfied with how far it’s come.
“I think we’ve grown tremendously in the past four years. I think that it’s a huge honor for us to be recognized with other organizations that have many years on us, and we’re being treated like a leader just like they are,” he said. “We’ve partnered with as many departments as possible, we’ve really educated a lot of individuals and we’ve grown their knowledge of what LGBTQ’s mission is across campus.”
Matthew Reisen is a staff reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com, or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
