The roots of the GSC lie in the work of members the UIC Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Issues. The committee was formed in the fall of 1991 by then Chancellor James Stukel. Over the first two years of its existence, the Committee identified the creation of an office to serve the lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) populations of UIC as a key goal. In tandem, the UIC student organization (PRIDE) was also evaluating the needs of the LGB student body. They also identified an office or center as a key requirement for adequate services to students.

In the fall of 1993, a task force headed by David Barnett and three other members of the Chancellor's Committee developed a proposal for an office to specifically serve LGB members of the UIC community (faculty, staff and students). This proposal is available here as a PDF document. It was approved by the Executive Committee of the Chancellor's Committee. The proposal was submitted to Myrna Addams, then Associate Chancellor for Affirmative Action Programs at UIC. She reviewed the proposal and agreed to forward it to Chancellor James Stukel. Concurrently, PRIDE held a petition drive (in the spring of 1994). They sought signatures on a petition asking the university to create an office to serve LGB students and gathered several thousand names in a few weeks. In addition, they sought and received support for their request from a variety of student groups, most notably Undergraduate Student Government. At a media event held by PRIDE, Dr. Michael Ginsburg, Associate Vice Chancellor for for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, announced that the university would create such an office.

In July, 1994, Dr. David Barnett was invited by the Chancellor to serve on a 1/3 time basis as the interim director for the Office of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Concerns (OGLBC). Dr. Barnett was a staff psychologist at the UIC Counseling Center. Dr. Geraldine Piorkowski, director of the Counseling Center, generously agreed to release some of Dr. Barnett's time for this assignment. The Office was allocated funds for a full-time Information Services Supervisor and an operating budget of $5000 after salaries. The Office was assigned to report to Dr. John Wanat, Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

The first order of business was to locate a space for the office. By August, space options had been narrowed down and the OGLBC was assigned to temporary quarters in the Sangamon Street Building. Dr. Barnett predicted the building was too far away from the rest of the campus to be a suitable location and agreed to house the Office there only on a temporary basis. The building had been a tuberculosis research facility. The project had moved out of state and the building was now available for other university operations. The space required extensive cosmetic repairs (plastering holes, sealing cracks, painting, repairing light fixtures, new locks, telephone lines, and signage).

A budget of $12,000 was allocated for this project. Three rooms and a private hallway were included in the OGLBC's space (two offices, a meeting room which also served as a the library, and a reception/storage area in the hallway). Dr. Barnett supervised this remodeling project with the assistance of staff from Physical Plant and Academic Affairs. He also secured a wide range of surplus furniture for use in the Office, much of it from Affirmative Action. The remodeling of the Office was completed in early November, 1994 and the Office was opened to the public. Dr. Barnett also began assembling a collection of donated books, magazines, and other materials into a resource library for the Office. The OGLBC space was quite attractive and large but the rest of the building was just beginning to be remodeled for other university tenants.

The Sangamon Street Building is located at Adams and Sangamon, 1/2 mile or more from most of the east-side campus. No campus bus service serves this building and it is not easily accessible by mobility impaired visitors. Dr. Barnett discovered that his prediction that the building was too far away to attract visitors was quite accurate. Very few students, staff, or faculty came to the Office in the first few months of its existence.

As there was no full-time employee during this time period, visitors were encouraged to make appointments with Dr. Barnett. During bitter cold weather, many of these turned into telephone appointments. A second proposal was submitted to expand the time for the director to work on a 3/4 or full-time basis for the next academic year. The proposal reiterated the need for a more central, accessible location on the east campus of the university for the office.

In May 1995, Jennifer Mueller was hired as Information Services Supervisor for the office. She started work as a full-time employee in June, 1995. Dr. Barnett was invited to continue his work with the Office as acting director on a 3/4 time basis for the 1995-1996 academic year.

In late October 1995, the Office began plans to move to a new location at the end of the semester. In December, 1995, the Office was moved to the fourth floor of the Behavioral Science Building. While a smaller total space, the Office was believed to be much more accessible to students, faculty and staff in this new location. A dramatic increase in visitors since the Office moved proved this point.

That new space consisted of a large reception area which housed the copy machine, fax machine, and the Information Services Supervisor; a small "community room" which housed the library, video collection, and clippings file and which doubled as a meeting room for up to six people; a private office for the director; and a small office for volunteers, grad assistant and archivist for the Office and the Chancellor's Committee.

In the late fall of 1995, Dr. Wanat agreed to begin a search for a full-time director of the Office. A search committee was formed and co-chaired by Celina Sima (of Academic Affairs) and Jo Campbell (of Campus Housing). Applications were sought from several sources, especially using UIC News and a variety of listservs and mailings. The committee reviewed applications, interviewed candidates and made their recommendation to Dr. Wanat. Dr. Wanat offered the director position on a full-time permanent basis to Dr. David Barnett, starting September 1, 1996.

The name of the office was expanded to include Transgender in the summer of 1998 at the request of the director with the approval of the Vice-Provost, Dr. John Wanat. In the fall of 1998, the Office relocated to easier-to-find-quarters on the first floor of the Behavioral Sciences Building and gained a classroom to use for meetings and programs.

Today, The Office of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns (OGLBTC) is an administrative department reporting to the Vice-Provost and Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Jennifer Mueller left the OGLBTC for a position with the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. He returned as Jacob Mueller in July of 2000 as Administrative Assistant of the OGLBTC.

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The OGLBTC's services and programs support the needs of LGBT students, faculty and staff at UIC. They provide information relevant to life on campus; offer recognition that GLBT people are valuable members of the UIC community; provide access to officials within the University; and work to develop a sense of community on campus, with recognition of the diversity within our other communities. The OGLBTC is a resource for anyone on campus who wants to know more about LGBT life and culture, or who wants to discuss LGBT-related issues or concerns. The Office provides a lot of support to student members of PRIDE and to the Chancellor's Committee.

In addition, the GSC has information on community and campus resources and welcomes drop-in visitors. As of July, 2003 the resource library for the OGLBTC has over 1000 books and 275 videos in its collection. This is a circulating collection which serves the UIC community. A clippings file has been started by two volunteers in the Office for student use in researching term papers.

A variety of programs have been sponsored or cosponsored by the Office since its inception including presentations by artists, authors, researchers, and activists. In addition, the Office was instrumental in bringing the NAMES Project Quilt display to UIC in December, 1995. In October, 1996, the Office co-sponsored a three-week display of the photo-text exhibit "Love Makes a Family: Living in Lesbian and Gay Families." The Office was instrumental in efforts to host the 1998 Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender College Conference at UIC.

Dr. Barnett departed his position as director in July 2000. After a national search for a new director, Patrick Finnessy was hired on November 15, 2000. The Office has reached new levels of service and visibility since that time, including the addition of the Chicago Collegiate Pride Fest, a flagship program developed by Finnessy and co-sponsored by area Universities and by the City of Chicago.

The institutionalization of the SAFE ZONE program under the OGLBTC's direction has greatly improved the quality and consistency of these much-needed trainings. In 2006 a Safe Zone 2 will be offered to train the graduates of Safe Zone who're seeking more specific training on LGBTQ issues. Over 500 people have earned Safe Zone training honors under the leadership of the Office.

Lunch 'n Learn, another flagship program , has been offered over a dozen different topics for several hundred people since its inception in 2002. Participants gather for lunch and a lecture on a variety of topics including Same Sex Marriage, BDSM/Leather, and Queer Hemispheres--lectures provided by international scholars at UIC depicting societal and cultural differences between the United States and other countries.

Additionally, the Rainbow Resource Room--opened in 2001--is a drop-in space, fully functioning library/media room, and a computer lab for students. The number of visitors to the OGLBTC has grown dramatically since the opening of Rainbow Resource.The Office also hosts an annual Rainbow Social at the beginning of each school-year.

A natural add-on to the Rainbow Resource Library has been the housing of the student group PRIDE @ UIC. They use the Rainbow Resource to hold many of their meetings and programs, as well as to meet with new students who're interested in what PRIDe and the Office have to offer. Coming in the Fall of 2006, PRIDE will be offering a peer support service knows as Queer Peer Ears--student to student support around various topics such as coming out and how to navigate identities in a world in which language is always evolving.

In 2004 the Office's was given a conference room in the Behavioral Sciences Building, which greatly increased capacity to hold meetings, classes and programs. The Chancellor's Committee on the Status of LGBT Issues holds frequent meetings in the new space as well.



The Office celebrated 10 years of service and community in the Fall of 2005.

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