With the start of the spring semester, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community has undergone several planned and unplanned changes.
LGBT Center Director Janie Long, who took the job at the beginning of the fall semester, is launching several new initiatives this month-office hours for students held on East Campus and a group for gay faculty, staff and allies.
In addition, a search for an assistant director will be completed this semester, and Long is currently establishing a mentoring program that pairs LGBT undergraduates and graduate students.
The faculty and staff group debuted with a chocolate-and-champagne affair last Thursday night. About 40 people attended and another 35 have expressed interest, Long said.
"I see it as a group for [members] to gather together, get to know one another, socialize together, to give each other support and to support our students," she said.
The office hours will commence this week, with Long available in the Crowell Building from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. every Thursday.
"I feel like first-year students are just so far away from [West] Campus, and I'd like to be more available to first-years," she said. "I also think it's important for the Center to be more than just this space here."
She added that some students may feel more comfortable approaching her outside the LGBT Center.
Since she took on the role of director, Long has received high marks from many members of the LGBT community. Junior Ashley Walker, a Duke Allies member and Center employee, said Long has been extremely responsive to student concerns and has gone out of her way to attend student gatherings and events, even those held after hours.
"I feel like Janie really cares about what we think," said senior Joanna Noble, a former president of Duke Allies and current vice president of AQUADuke. "We've had younger people who are on their way to bigger positions [working at the Center], but for her, this is what she wants to do."
Also in January, junior Katharine Eggleston took over the presidency of Duke Allies from Jeremy Marshall, also a junior, who announced his resignation in a Nov. 13 e-mail to the group. A second e-mail indicated he would remain in his position until Allies elections, which were held during Winter Break.
Members of the LGBT community said Marshall had made impressive strides in turning Allies into a larger, more effective group, but sometimes clashed with people-especially Long. In his resignation e-mail, Marshall said his failure to get a job at the Center was a major source of frustration.
"I thought if I worked really hard and demonstrated a commitment to LGBT issues, I might get a job at the Center," he wrote. "When I found out I would again not be considered for a job, I was really hurt.... That's the truth, and the reason I tried to orient Allies against the Center."
In a Jan. 19 letter to The Chronicle laced with personal attacks on Long, he wrote that he was also upset about the departure of Kerry Poynter, a Center staff member who served as interim director from Fall 2005 until Long's arrival. Marshall also formed a Facebook group calling for Poynter's return.
"The only reason Janie was selected over Kerry, I feel, was her more prestigious degree," he wrote. "However, a person is worth more than a few scraps of paper."
Marshall added that Long had "left a dark stain on this entire community."
Long declined to comment on Marshall's and Poynter's departures.
"There were quite a few people who found [Marshall] not easy to get along with, and one of them was Janie," said Allies Treasurer Catrina Wang, a sophomore. She said a column Marshall wrote in The Chronicle in April 2006 advocating strict immigration laws also upset some people.
"I think it will be good to see new faces and good for people who were formerly involved in Duke Allies to take a step back," Wang said.
Walker said that although Marshall's resignation is "unfortunate," it will not be a serious blow to the LGBT community.
"Even if there's trouble in the community, I don't feel like it's a fragmented community," she said. "When you have any community and it's small, there's some fighting and bickering. This is a family, and that's how a family goes."
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