Gay Awareness Week

Joe Evangelisti

Cavalier Daily

Cavalier Daily

1984-03-28

Gay Awareness Week Endorsed
By JOE EVANGELISTI
After about 20 minutes of debate, Student Council voted 18-7 last night to endorse Gay Awareness Week for the fifth straight year.
College Rep. John Doyon asked council to recognize the week rather than endorse it, adding, “I don’t know if Student Council should be taking a stand on a moral issue.”
But College Rep. Marie Hawthorne disagreed. “By endorsing an awareness week, we are endorsing their right to heighten awareness.
“I really think we should endorse it,” she said.
Rodney Akers, council services and projects vice president, said he shared Hawthorne’s views. “It would be somewhat ludicrous to say ‘recognize.’ Student Council already recognizes it.”
But College Rep. Rob Guenther, who voted against endorsement, said, “for us to endorse it is in effect trying to say something to the student body.
“I can’t see leading the student body by the leash,” he added.
“I expected the Gay Awareness week to be endorsed,” said Gay Student Union President Rob Berry. “I’m happy that Student Council has chosen to endorse us again.”
The week will be held April 1-7.
Earlier, Assoc. Dean of Students Annett Gibbs, Student Activities Committee chairman, told council members how her committee is supposed to work in conjunction with council and its Appropriations Committee.
Gibbs said groups who disagree with the appropriations committee’s decisions regarding allocation of Student Activities Funds can appeal the decision to her office.
“We have an average of about two of these [appeals] each year,” she said, adding her committee decides most of the appeals in council’s favor.
Gibbs also addressed the appropriation committee’s decision to allocate $220 to the GSU – the first such funding proposal since 1975.
She said her group will vote in about two weeks whether to recommend the GSU funding to the board of visitors, which will make the final decision.
“No one can overrule the Board,” Gibbs said, “except the governor of the state.”