Notre Dame group seeks acceptance

SOUTH BEND -- A fledgling group of gay students at Notre Dame University is seeking recognition as a student organization, despite the failure of similar campaigns over the past two decades.\nThe group Unity in Diversity is intending to create a welcoming atmosphere for gay, lesbian or bisexual students and employees at the Roman Catholic school, said Joe Dickmann, a gay Notre Dame senior from St. Louis.\nFriday the group will file a request with the Office of Student Activities for recognition as a student organization, Dickmann said.\nThe university has not received the request and had no comment, spokesman Dennis Brown said Wednesday. He said administrators would tell the group of the decision before any comment was made in public.\nDickmann said the group's membership would be open to any student -- gay, bisexual or heterosexual -- interested in promoting awareness on campus about what it means to be gay. The group also will urge that sexual orientation be added to Notre Dame's nondiscrimination clause, Dickmann said.\nIn the past two decades, Notre Dame has turned down requests for recognition of student groups to represent or support homosexuals.\nOutreachND, an unrecognized gay student club formed in about 1986, continues to operate on campus. The group hosts monthly social gatherings but is not permitted to share in student activities funds or advertise on campus.\nThe university also sponsors a Standing Committee for Gay and Lesbian Student Needs. The committee hosts monthly coffee get-togethers and support group meetings and provides training about issues of sexual orientation for resident assistants and incoming freshmen.\nThe campus climate seems to be slowly changing, said Liam Dacey, a senior from Cape Cod, Mass., who is a student member of the committee and participates in OutreachND.\n"It's time to recognize these groups as student clubs," Dacey said. "If they can have a Texas Club, they can have a club for gays. It's time for the university to change with the times."\nIn the mid-1990s, some students, faculty and graduates urged the addition of sexual orientation to Notre Dame's nondiscrimination policy. Notre Dame instead adopted a statement describing the university's regard for all people, with specific reference to lesbians and gays.\nThe Faculty Senate passed a proposal that sexual orientation be added to the nondiscrimination clause, and the Academic Council backed the idea. Notre Dame's Board of Fellows, the highest tier of the Board of Trustees, decided in 1998, however, not to extend the nondiscrimination clause.