Queer Student Resources (QSR), formerly known as the LGBT-CRC, is an integral part of the Stanford community. An indispensable pillar in Stanford’s history and culture, we provide services and education to queer and non-queer students alike, working to make Stanford a safe and welcoming environment for students with a variety of backgrounds and identities. Our space and programming are crucial to the continuation of many forms of queer community on campus. While we are attempting to work with what we have, QSR is not receiving enough funding to cover the diverse needs of queer communities at Stanford. Current funding levels restrict our support for queer voluntary student organizations, trans* communities, queer graduate student communities and even our undergraduate student staff.

In attempts to better serve our community, QSR has made significant compromises in terms of a speaker budget and staff limitations. Due to limited funding, QSR chose to allocate our entire speaker budget to provide nourishment and community building to students in the form of food, drinks and other necessities for students to feel welcomed. In doing so, we have had to choose between academic enrichment and basic comforts to support queer students.

Additionally, QSR wants to do its best to provide its staff members adequate compensation for the work that we do. However, under our current funding, there is a lot of work that is still not being properly recognized. Many community members created sizeable initiatives in the past, including but not limited to Trans&, Terrabytes and the Stanford Trans Resources Guide, that we did not have the ability to properly compensate.

While some of the areas affected by past budget cuts are still pertinent to the queer community and require further funding, new needs have arisen that must also be addressed. Regardless of the history of our needs, QSR appeals for budgetary increases in three areas: (1) for more undergraduate staff, (2) for a graduate student staff and (3) for more queer-relevant speakers. While other community centers possess dozen(s) of undergraduate staff, QSR can only support eight team members. All the while, the scope and size of QSR’s resource-users has grown, with more allied and queer students alike getting involved with queer communities on campus. Along these lines, heightened graduate student participation also requires the support of QSR, support that QSR has been unable to fulfill in years past. The demands of our communities have simply outgrown our current capacity.

Evidently, funding for both more undergraduate and graduate student staff is required. Moreover, these communities also deserve access to scholars, activists and key figures who share their queer identity. In order for this to happen, QSR calls for increases in the speaker budget.

QSR has incredible potential to be a point of connection between queer students, faculty and administrators. With our current funding levels, this potential is pointlessly wasted. We owe the communities we serve better than what we can provide now. With more funding, we can do justice to our missions and values.

To join us in supporting all of our community centers, please sign this petition.

With radical love,

Cheng-Hau Kee
T Hoatson
Gen Singer
Bobby Radecki
Crystal Liu
Eisa Al-Shamma
Auguste Seong
Riley Wilson
Shahpar Mirza

 

Contact the authors at communitycentercoalition ‘at’ gmail.com.