Do you feel safe? We all want a place where we feel safe, where we can just be ourselves. But right now, as many as 3,500 San Diego State University students don’t have this when they’re on campus. For too long, SDSU has ignored the needs of its LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and intersex) students. While the current LGBT Student Union struggles to offer services with a dedicated team of volunteers, there is no support from the university.

SDSU is now in the process of revising its master plan and should use this opportunity to join the scores of major universities supporting active LGBT resource centers benefiting LGBTQI students and allies. The biggest benefit, however, is simply having a safe place on campus.

Many LGBTQI students arrive at SDSU at the beginning or in the middle of their coming-out process. This may be the first time they have been away from home. A well-developed LGBT center would include a resource center, providing books, Web sites and peer support with information about coming out, safer sex, dating and domestic violence in the LGBT community. These are topics that straight kids get from their parents or friends in high school, but LGBT high school students don’t usually get this information at home.

What’s going on at other colleges? Cal State Long Beach, which is about the same size as SDSU, has had a permanent LGBT resource center since 1989. Cal State Long Beach’s president even spoke last year at its National Coming Out Day.

UCSD has a permanent resource center. It is run by a paid staff and provides resources like books, films, journals and brochures. There is information about coming out and other LGBT issues related to topics like religion, health and politics. It is a place where LGBTQI students and allies, staff and faculty can go to read, ask questions, talk, learn and feel safe. They offer referrals to local services, support groups and safe spaces where students, faculty and staff can discuss specific issues or learn more about issues that affect the LGBTQI community. They also host or sponsor many educational, cultural and social events. They even invite SDSU’s LGBTQI students and allies to join them at events like the “Non-Sexist Dance.”

SDSU students wanting to attend LGBT-friendly social events have to go to another campus? This is an embarrassing wake-up call to SDSU as well as the rest of San Diego’s LGBTQI community.

This is just what is needed at SDSU, an active and visible LGBT resource center with professional and student staff who understand LGBTQI issues. The university should fully support students who want to be active, out members of the SDSU community. This center would also help students who are closeted, giving them privacy while meeting their needs and giving them the chance to be a part of SDSU in their own way. It would also be a way to connect LGBTQI students to faculty and staff who want to provide support and be mentors or role models.

One of the most important benefits of university support, however, would be intangible. By providing comprehensive support, the university sends a message of inclusion and acceptance to LGBTQI students. University support says, “We accept you, we value you and we want you to be a part of our community.” Right now the message is, “Yeah, whatever.” We must do better. Young LGBTQI people have much higher rates of substance abuse and suicide than their straight peers, usually because they’re alone and excluded. The resource center we envision would work to change that.