The student-run queer space in Student Union 373 will remain open until Dec. 19, with a further extension no longer possible, according to the university.
Additional time was “provided in good faith to allow for the club to organize, pack and relocate belongings in an orderly way,” SU Director Sue Kurowski told The Spectrum in an email.
“Any personal or organization-owned belongings left in the room after December 19 will be removed at the appropriate time and stored for club members to pick up at the start of the spring semester,” Kurowski wrote.
SU 373 is set to become a commuter lounge. Staff will begin the renovations “immediately” following the vacancy date, including “removal of furniture, painting and floor refinishing,” according to an Oct. 30 email to the LGBTA club provided by Kurowski to The Spectrum.
UB’s LGBTA club, the organization that runs the room, is taking the extension as more time to fight for the space. Items are slowly being relocated to storage but the end goal still is to prevent the space from being shut down, according to the club’s treasurer Tori Foxton.
The club claims that the extension to Dec. 19 — the last day of the semester — was on purpose, accusing the university of waiting until no one else is around. The first agreed upon extension date was Dec. 8, the last day of classes, the club said.
“We think they are assuming that we are not going to have anyone here for a sit-in at the end of the semester; that people are going to have gone away,” Lorien Samarra, a member of the junior e-board, told club members at a LGBTA sit-in event hosted Oct. 31. “We literally did not ask for a second extension.”
Kurowski confirmed to The Spectrum that Dec. 8 was the first agreed-upon date and reiterated that the additional time was provided to allow for the club to organize and relocate, with “students focused on preparing for final exams in early December.”
Since the beginning of October, UB and the LGBTA club have been locked in a stalemate over interpretations of new university policy.
UB is phasing out a policy that assigned rooms to clubs for exclusive use out of “ongoing efforts to ensure equitable access to SU spaces.” Counting SU 373 to be under the rule, the university informed the LGBTA club on Oct. 2 by email that the space was set to be closed on Oct. 31.
The club contends that SU 373 is an exception and should remain open, pointing to the room’s establishment as a “community space.” A petition launched on Oct. 15 has now reached over 700 signatures.
UB’s LGBTQ+ center that opened this fall will serve as the new community space according to the university, but the LGBTA club argues that the queer space gives something that the center can’t: privacy.
“It is still administrative inherently,” Owen Li — a member of the LGBTA club’s junior board — said. “We truly believe that if UB valued the LGBTQ community and our survivors, they would see value in keeping this type of room.”
The undergraduate Student Association has been a mediator but not a supporter, Li said. Members of SA’s advocacy department have been pushing for the extension to allow the club to transition into the center, rather than keeping the room itself.
“They’re trying to make it so that no one is unhappy with this, and they are doing it at a level that is safe for them,” Li said. “From their actions, it does not seem that they truly want us to stay as an entity or view us in terms of our value.”
SA President Aisha Adam told The Spectrum that SA has been working to advocate for the students involved given the decision to repurpose SU 373.
“The focus has been making sure their needs are given the appropriate attention and that requires open and clear communication between our vulnerable students and the relevant university offices and administrators,” Adam wrote in a text message to The Spectrum. “Thankfully, all sides seem committed to figuring this out in a way that honors the values we share at UB.”
Emma Mendola contributed to the reporting of this article.
Mylien Lai is the senior news editor and can be reached at mylien.lai@ubspectrum.com.
Mylien Lai is the senior news editor at The Spectrum. Outside of getting lost in Buffalo, she enjoys practicing the piano and being a bean plant mom. She can be found at @my_my_my_myliennnn on Instagram.
