By Daniel C. Houston
Reporter
Dr. Kevin Jackson, vice president for student life, is expected to come to an official decision today on whether to grant a charter to a group promoting discussion of issues pertaining to gay and lesbian students, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
The officers of the Sexual Identity Forum have appealed the student activities charter council’s decision not to recommend granting them a charter and are anticipating Jackson will send them an official document today explaining his final decision.
“[Jackson] hasn’t officially communicated the decision,” Lori Fogleman, director of media communications, said in an interview Thursday. “It is my understanding that that will be [released by] the end of the day tomorrow, or somewhere around that point.”
Alvarado senior Samantha Jones, president of the Sexual Identity Forum, expects the charter to be denied based on a March 4 meeting she had with Jackson in which, she said, he expressed his intention to deny the group’s request for a charter because the issues were too complex for a student organization to hold an appropriate forum about them.
“He is trying to do the best thing by the students and communicating through the proper channels,” Fogleman said, adding that Jackson will not confirm the decision or the reasoning behind it before he sends the official document to the organization today.
Jones, who has already announced on the Sexual Identity Forum’s website that the charter has been denied, said she does not believe the administration has given the organization the opportunity to live up to its stated goal of serving as a discussion group, not an advocacy group.
“I feel that every student that comes to this group is being oppressed and discriminated against,” Jones said, “because they are not being provided another forum to come and talk about it.”
More information can be found online as this story develops at www.baylorlariat.com.
