Students will soon see the LGBT Campus Center name replaced with Gender and Sexuality Campus Center in the Red Gym, the campus center recently announced.
After initially changing the center’s name to the Gender and Sexuality Spectrum Center in November, the name was changed once again to reflect a broader community and allow for growth of language and emerging identities, according to a news release.
Simone Williams, a UW-Madison freshman serving as Program and Outreach Coordinator for the center, said the name change came after the center received feedback from UW-Madison students, faculty and community members. Williams said an online feedback forum, as well as drop-in visits, revealed that many people found the word “spectrum” to be too academic.
The center replaced the word spectrum with campus to be more student-oriented, as well as to retain the “campus center” language to ease in the transition by boosting name recognition, according to Williams.
“At the end of the day, the campus center is about the community we serve on campus,” Williams said. “It is about the students that come, the faculty that come in. It is about what we can do to make this the best place and safest place possible for students across multiple spectrums of gender identities and sexual identities.”
In addition to adding the word campus to the name, the center will also have a new tagline reading: “Supporting LGBTQ+ students and their communities.” According to the release, the addition of the tagline, including the “+” after the acronym, was also prompted from student feedback.
Although just recently announced, a number of university organizations have already endorsed the final name change, including the Associated Students of Madison Equity & Inclusion Committee and the Dean of Students Advisory Board.
Alex Hader, ASM’s Equity & Inclusion Chair, said it is important to get the opinion of a wide-variety of people — including students, faculty and staff — when deciding to make a change like this.
“It is definitely important that all communities across campus who would either have a stake in this name change or are invested in it get a voice so that it is representative of the people who utilize the campus center,” Hader said.
The campus center plans to develop a new logo this spring before it puts the new name on the website and other materials. They will work with SOAR and University Housing this summer to ensure students know about the center.
