San Diego State University recently approved a new Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies minor.

The LGBT Studies Minor will become official next academic year, appearing in the SDSU catalog for the first time for the 2009-2010 academic year.

However, students can take courses in the minor now.

“It’s a great step for academia because it gives students an even broader variety of choices in their educational path,” said Ben Cartwright, coordinator of SDSU’s Pride Resource Office.

Cartwright said he is confident that by offering such studies on campus, students will broaden their academic and personal growth.

“Having these great choices available to students is really what higher education and universities are all about, because LGBT issues are not even remotely touched upon, much less directly taught in the K-12 system,” he said.

The minor will be an Interdisciplinary Program, not affiliated with any one department. It will include courses in English, general studies, history, journalism and media studies, television film and new media production, and women’s studies.

LGBT Studies is a growing academic specialization across the United States. According to the proposal the Senate approved on Oct. 7, such programs have been established for years at other universities, such as San Francisco State University, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Duke, Princeton, Rutgers, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UC Santa Cruz. Individual courses in LGBT Studies have been offered at SDSU since the late 1970s, but they have never been consolidated into a coherent program for students.

“There have been several groups of student who have tried to get the discipline fully established on campus for years,” Cartwright said, noting the reasons it has not been approved are as diverse as the discipline itself.

SDSU is the second university in the California State University system to have such a minor.

Esther Rothblum, a professor in the women’s studies department, who is the advisor for the new minor was delighted when the proposal was approved.

And while its approval has not yet been announced on a wider scale to students, Rothblum doesn’t plan to keep it that way for long. In an e-mail shortly after the Senate’s Oct. 7 decision Rothblum called the approval “great news,” asking Cartwright to begin to spread the word amongst students immediately. Rothblum, who is also the editor of the “Journal of Lesbian Studies,” has co-edited more than 20 books GLBT issues, and conducts research on lesbian relationships and mental health.

She also plans to speak with the campus newspaper, The Daily Aztec to inform students of the new academic discipline option.

“The minor will offically take effect next year, which means that anyone who is not graduating this year can take courses now that count for the minor,” Rothblum said, referring students to the minor proposal for clarification. “This will be updated each year depending on courses offered,” she said, noting that one of the two required courses – Gay and Lesbian Identities in the Modern World – will be offered this coming spring.

“Because the proposed minor draws on existing courses, we do not envision any negative effects on the quality of other existing programs. If anything, this minor will enhance enrollments in the included courses,” Rothblum said.