Subcommittee member Jody Usher of the College Office reported at the Commission's Feb. 12 meeting that formalizing those arrangements will require the involvement of the Office of Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Life in documenting students' same sex domestic partners. "Both the P.E. Center and the libraries are becoming more sophisticated in technologically identifying who's who," Usher explained. "More and more, people are being required to have a card swiped to get access to those facilities. So what used to be okay informally now must conform with what is happening technologically."
The Commission also voted to allocate $1,900 to the annual Pride Banquet, scheduled for Saturday, March 2. Commission member Saralynn Chesnut, director of the Office of Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Life, said that her office has been the primary sponsor of the banquet since its inception in 1993, but that duty has shifted to the Commission, which officially came into being last spring.
University Secretary Gary Hauk announced that President Bill Chace had approved the Commission's bylaws. The Commission voted to unanimously to accept some minor wording changes to the bylaws that Chace suggested.
of Women
The Staff Concerns Committee of the President's Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) has begun a series of six focus groups that will include 12 women staff members each, Committee members announced at the PCSW's Feb. 8 meeting.
The Committee is conducting the focus groups through early March to determine what issues are of the greatest concern to women staff members. The Committee has hired two students to help with formulating the methodology of the project and with compiling a report once the group sessions are completed.
The Student Concerns Committee is continuing its series of forums with women students began last fall. All forums will be completed before spring break, which begins March 11. The Committee will compile a report documenting the concerns expressed by women students in the forums.
--Dan Treadaway