I worked at Simon Fraser University’s queer center, Out on Campus, between 1998-2005. It was a unique time to be organizing with queer and trans student activism. When I started, queer youth drop-ins were struggling and the internet was changing how people gathered resources and connected to each other. It was a time of juxtapositions: there were high school gay straight alliances while Matthew Shepherd’s brutal murder shocked many people; the Pride parade had corporate sponsors while anti-globalization protests were gathering significant momentum. Campus activists everywhere were negotiating identity politics and how different movements (feminist, anti-racist, queer, dis/ability) could co-create vibrant spaces of resistance. Meanwhile, most students were volunteering with an LGBTQ campus group to simply meet other students and find community. Out on Campus was influenced by all of these things.  Hundreds of students have volunteered with OOC over the years, and there are probably thousands of queer and trans student activists in Canada who have stories about their campuses and struggles.

SFU Queer History

Simon Fraser University has enjoyed a long history of queer organizing. There was the Gay Student Union (1972), Gay People of SFU (1974-79), Gays of SFU (1981) that changed its name to Gays and Lesbian People of SFU (1981), the Gay and Lesbian Club of SFU (1984) that changed its name to the Gay And Lesbian Association of SFU in 1985.  Fast forward to 1994 when the name “Out on Campus, SFU’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered collective” first appears. By 1996 the culmination of campus queer activism (including the tradition of Queer Awareness Week, which continues today) had made an impression at SFU and the Simon Fraser Student Society granted Out on Campus $5000 to continue their programming activities and begin a library. By 1997 and 14 years after their first attempt to secure a permanent space, Out on Campus opened the first “Rainbow Room” in the south Rotunda with enough room for drop-ins, a library, and collective meetings. A year later, Out on Campus would move into roomier digs around the corner.

How We Met

I met Out on Campus members for the first time in 1998. It was a fall day and OOC volunteers were tabling outside. I wasn’t sure how to ask about getting involved so I worked up enough nerve to go over and blurted out, “Do you have a mission statement?” They looked a bit puzzled, because it would have been easier to ask to sign up for the email list, but sure enough, they did. I went back for a potluck. Then I joined the collective that fall and we were a group of between 8 and 10 people. We worked together to catalogue a growing library, keep the large lounge and drop-in space open, initiate programming and socials, connect people to resources on and off-campus, and paint many, many banners.  It was a challenge to keep the lounge open because of limited volunteers in those first years: our goal was 10 hours a week. Today, OOC is usually open 35 hours a week.

A Queer Location

Out on Campus’ physical location was prominent- great for addressing queer visibility- but the busy hallway, and a fear of rejection, made it hard for people to walk in the doors. Once, Out on Campus received a letter through the PIRG next door. The writer thanked us for the recent article in the PIRG (maga)zine, where Out on Campus invited anyone regardless of gender or sexual orientation to visit the center. The writer said she had spent many months despairingly walking by the doors, trying to work up the courage to enter, and the article had changed her mind. Happily, two weeks later she arrived for lunch.  I’m sure she wasn’t alone in those feelings.  A second way OOC tried to welcome people through the doors (and not just onto the email list) was to hold a weekly evening Cafe, aimed at students in Residence. The original coordinator of the Cafe invested hundreds of hours into the long-running project and the second Cafe coordinator was an ally who won an Xtra West award for her dedication. Once a solid base of 40+ volunteers was established around 1999, a favorite activity was to relocate the room outside by taking all of the furniture outside to SFU’s Convocation Mall and say “Out on Campus is Out On Campus,” a day-long tradition that continues today with coffee and heaters. Ten years later, the internet plays a big role in demystifying the center.

Collective

From the beginning of my involvement, I was introduced to consensus decision making and a collective-based structure. Participation at collective meetings was open to anyone. The collective structure existed before me and it continues to this day. Facilitation taught me about sharing power in the organization: OOC has a unique structure, where volunteer collective members supervise staff and collective meetings are governed with consensus decision making. I personally think the testament to Out on Campus’ successful reputation on campus stems from its roots in using consensus decision making from the start, and renewing these skills every year.  The idea of a presidency or board structure certainly came up from time to time for the sake of expediency, but OOC has yet to make that move. Between 1998- 2005, the collective was between 10 and 20 people who were closest to the running of the center. Overall, there were approximately 100 volunteers a year who were responsible for projects, committees, and other programs. These were some of the warmest, generous and creative people with whom I have had the pleasure of working.

Peer Support

Back in 2003, I wrote:  “Like any student common room at SFU, OOC is a public space. It’s not your living room, nor mine. Not many people, no matter how well-adjusted they are, just open up intimate parts of themselves without feeling a sense of trust and respect from the people around them. But somehow, in the last five years at OOC, I’ve heard people sitting on the OOC couches talk about dealing with stress, families, mood disorders, relationships ending, financial destitution, identity, legal battles, restraining orders, sexual abuse, partner abuse, grief, and every other aspect of complex, unfolding lives. Sometimes these people are opening up to someone they’ve just met.”  A need for trained peer support was identified. With training from the Vancouver Crisis Line, the Trans Health Program and SFU’s Counseling Centre Out on Campus moved to develop an ongoing, formalized peer support structure with trained volunteers. Discussion groups and other informal support continued to meet the needs of finding an empathetic ear.

Structure

Out on Campus is a department of the Simon Fraser Student Society and it is because of this relationship that OOC has enjoyed significant financial support. With a regular funding OOC was able to dramatically expand its volunteer and programming base year after year. This type of financial security seemed to be unusual at the time compared to other post-secondary schools. As a result of the financial stability, in 1999, the Out on Campus collective hired its first part time staff person at 5 hours a week. By 2003, Out on Campus would have a 28-hour a week unionized coordinator (and later, a part time web+email assistant would join the staff) and would be able to fund a $400 bursary through SFU.

Role at Simon Fraser University

Beyond community-building, student-run queer centers actively advocate for better LGBTQ policies at universities and colleges. For example, Simon Fraser University has the population and amenities of a small town- roughly 26 000 students and thousands of staff and faculty- with services such as daycare, two health clinics, gyms, counseling services, multiple libraries, and thousands of students and families who live on-campus in Residence. When queer students use the health clinic, they have a right to appropriate and sensitive health care; when trans students ask for housing in Residence they expect the University is equipped to accommodate the request; if queers are harassed at Pub night they need effective security guards who respond promptly.  Academically, queer content in courses that is erroneous, discriminatory or omitted needs to be followed up with the individual department and professor with a coordinated effort.  Changing university policies is a slow process. Out on Campus kept in regular contact with many University departments to educate and train University staff and volunteers. Every August there was a special effort to educate student Orientation leaders who would lead thousands of bright-eyed first year students on campus tours right through the OOC doors.

I hope that others join in the writing of OOC’s histories with me.  I tried to compile a list of activities (below) that happened between 1999 and 2005, but this list isn’t exhaustive. I estimate that volunteers and staff coordinated 400 events or meetings in those six years.

Major Programming between 1999-2005:

• Each semester: Open House, Clubs Days, a Book buy (at Little Sisters), Volunteer appreciation party and Volunteer orientations
• Highlighted social events: movie nights, clubbing, women’s/men’s group events, After Hours cafe (still running in 2008), Gender Bender Day, the AIDS walk, camping trip, games night, annual HallowQue’er party, the Monday (free) breakfast club, the annual sold-out drag/cabaret show, Homegrown Ginger indie movie screening, inter-campus pub night
• Educational Events: annual Queer Awareness Week, Coming Out Week (2002), weekly discussion groups (such as: ethnoculturally diverse relationships, coming out, identity and boxes), Peer Support Team, 8-week coming out discussion, Gender 101 workshop, facilitated sex talk discussion, fun/educational workshops (i.e. bike repair, yoga), fat oppression workshop, polyamory discussion, trans 101 panel discussion, Ally workshops and the Queer Ally project (1999-2001), author readings such as Karen X Tulchinsky, Ivan E Coyote, and other queer authors on tour….
• Media:  Q- zine (2003-2004, production, editing etc), gathering resources and pamphlets for library, or making displays, writing for the Peak, CJSF radio programming, web presence
• Training: Consensus training,  Health and Counseling Centre invitational meet+greet, Listening Skills/ Peer Support Skills workshops with the Crisis Line, Volunteer Management Training, Antioppression 101, Facilitation training
• Advocacy work: Annual Pride parade float with other post-secondary schools, demonstration about Matthew Shephard (1998), Petition signing about same sex marriages (1999), attending city council meetings about safe transit (1999), demonstration against book banning (1999), Transgender Day of Awareness (2004+), sponsoring “Roast the Liberals” demo (Queers Against Kapitalism 1999), Advocacy Representative on SFSS committee, Forum Representative to the SFSS Board, advocacy for single stall safe washrooms (2003+), and funding a $400 bursary through SFU for any student who has worked to address homophobia/ transphobia in their work.
• Liasing and Networking: Monthly Rotunda meetings, joint events with P!RG  & the Women’s Centre, potlucks with the First Nations Students Association, meeting the Queer Faculty Network (2002~), presentations to SFU librarians about Rotunda libraries, training SFU Health Career staff about LGBT health issues (2003), annual Orientation Leader / Residence Association training
• Library: by 2005, the Out on Campus library had expanded to over 1100 titles (books and multimedia) and library volunteers had struggled through no less than 3 cataloguing systems
• Peer Support: trained team of 8+ Peer Support volunteers ready for one-to-one peer support in person or electronically, queer women of colour support group (2004)
• Retreat: the all-Rotunda 3 day strategic planning and visioning retreat in Gibsons, BC has happened for 5 years now.

Today, Out on Campus continues to expand its mandate: “Having re-established a strong volunteer base, Out On Campus is reaching out this year, looking at larger issues that affect queer people and allies of all communities. We are expanding the concept of queer to acknowledge that everyone is affected by issues of sexuality and gender, because we all have them. We demand representation for all aspects of our community.”   I couldn’t agree more.