NIU is recognized as one of the most LGBT-friendly campuses in the country.

This distinction, bestowed by the Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students, is due largely in part to NIU’s LGBT Resource Center. The center gives lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students a safe place to call their own on campus.

“We want new students to know they’re not alone here,” said director Margie Cook. “We’re here to be a resource for everyone.”

During its open house to kick off the semester, interested students could go to the Resource Center, located on the seventh floor of the Holmes Student Center, to create rainbow sand art bottles and postcards for the Center’s “Art of Liberation” project.

The project serves as a collage of students’ self-expression. As visitors created postcards during the open house, they were encouraged to add their finished art to the collage.

“There’s such an array of things people use to express themselves,” said Megan Armstrong, senior health education major and peer mentor for the center.

In general, the Resource Center aims to be a place where LGBT students, faculty and those friendly to the LGBT lifestyle can come to discuss issues, study or just socialize.

“I keep coming back because people here are open-minded,” said sophomore undeclared major, Cliff Hight. “These are very talkative, funny, good people. It’s more fun than I thought it would be.”

Students and faculty who frequent the Resource Center see it less as an office and more as a safe haven.

“We know the people that come in here very well,” Armstrong said. “It’s very important to have those kind of connections.”

This semester, the LGBT Resource Center is expanding the ways it reaches out to students. A Facebook fan page has been established to keep students up to date on events and the center has just started a blog to discuss issues and current events important to members of the LGBT community. The Resource Center has plans for more outreach tools as the semester continues but is not ready to announce anything specifically.

“It’s important that [students] are aware of their options as college students,” Administration Assistant Patricia Liberty-Baczek said. “The sooner they become aware, the better off they are.”

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