UVM’s recent decision to restructure several of the University’s student identity centers has drawn widespread criticism from faculty, staff, students and alums. Many of these stakeholders view the change as a step backward for LGBTQ+ support and visibility on campus. 

On June 17, a select group of UVM staff received an announcement from the UVM administration planning to consolidate the Prism Center, which supports LGBTQ+ students, with the Women and Gender Equity Center and expand the existing Men and Masculinities Programs. 

The culminating entity, titled the Prism Intercultural Center, is designed to help the University better serve all individuals with diverse sexual orientations, genders and gender identities, according to a July 9 letter to the Cynic from James D. Ross II, the senior director of Intercultural Centers and continuing director of the Interfaith Center. 

“As a strategic matter, this change recognizes, from a structural perspective, that although our sexual orientations are in some ways separate and distinct from our gender identities and genders, they also are intricately connected and informed and influenced by each other,” Ross stated. 

However, the restructuring is a change that many say diminishes the visibility and independence of the University’s queer community.

“It feels like going back into the closet,” said English Professor Val Rohy, who has taught at UVM for over two decades and is an organizing force on a petition opposing the change. “It doesn’t matter what reason that initiative is being taken for, what we hear is ‘become less visible,’ and we think we’re going backward.”

The petition opposing the reorganization, authored by Rohy and others, garnered more than 200 signatures in its first week. It argues that the change erases LGBTQ+ visibility, confuses prospective students and rolls back 25+ years of community building.

“Visibility indicates what UVM values; this change says we don’t value LGBTQ+ students,” the petition stated.

Now at almost 300 signatures, the document urges UVM to maintain the Prism Center’s independence, conduct a national search for a new director and refrain from “camouflaging” LGBTQ+ support services under an intercultural label.

“Faculty, staff and alums… have worked for over 25 years to build this center from an office with a part-time staff to a really vibrant and effective center,” Rohy said. “LGBTQ students face unique challenges and forms of bias, and therefore, we need to support them in unique ways.”

Associate Professor Jackie Weinstock, a collaborator on the petition, echoed this sentiment that grouping LGBTQ+ issues under a cultural umbrella results in the loss of support for the community. 

“It doesn’t quite work to put [people] underneath a Prism Intercultural Center,” she said. “There’s so many diverse groups within. It doesn’t work for everybody. For some people, it’s a biological experience and identity and not a cultural identity.”

For students who use the Center, the change is not just symbolic. Robin Olsen, a senior at UVM from Boise, Idaho, has frequented the Prism Center throughout her college career. 

“The Prism Center was one of the biggest reasons why I chose to go to UVM,” Olsen said. “Having a specific space for people of queer and trans identities… to be able to congregate in a single space that was meant for them was hugely empowering.”

Olsen described the Prism Center as “foundational” to her University experience; the restructuring represents a profound loss.

“It’s a loss of community, right? It’s a loss of being able to recognize yourself among peers,” she said. “Not being able to have that community and not having that sense of clarity of who this community is for is going to leave a lot of students isolated.”

Olsen was among the first to hear about the change, not from the University, but from a Discord server for trans students.

“We felt very disrespected,” she said. “It felt very dishonest of UVM.”

In response, Olsen sent out an anonymous Google form to collect positive student experiences at the Prism Center, with the ultimate goal of sharing them with the University administration. 

“Much more than erasing inclusive language — metaphorically and literally — this step signals from the administration their unwillingness to support or even acknowledge LGBTQ students during a time where we are especially vulnerable,” Olsen stated in the description of the Google form titled “Help Save UVM Prism Center.” 

Similarly, critics of the reorganization point to a lack of transparency in how the decision was made and communicated. No consultation occurred with faculty experts on LGBTQ+ or women’s issues or the students involved at the Center, according to Rohy and Weinstock.

In response to questions from concerned community members, Adam White, executive director of university communications, shared that the changes were planned and implemented prior to the arrival of new President Marlene Tromp. 

“LGBTQ+ students are a vital part of our campus community and UVM maintains an unwavering commitment to serving and supporting all of our students,” White stated in a July 9 email.

Accompanying that statement was the statement from Ross. Ross defended the reorganization as a strategic and inclusive move. 

“The goal… is to ensure more cohesive, consistent work, support and services across identities… that are never fully bifurcated,” Ross stated in the same email. 

While the former Prism Center will now be called “Prism at UVM,” as a part of the larger Prism Intercultural Center, Ross emphasized that it will retain full staffing, programming and remain in the same location. 

“The position for which we are hiring is not a general staff role; the incumbent will lead Prism at UVM,” he stated.

Ross also expressed his personal support for the change as a queer person, stating that the new structure reflects how younger generations increasingly understand and experience the fluidity of gender and sexual identity. 

“Although our sexual orientations are in some ways separate and distinct from our gender identities… they also are intricately connected and influenced by each other,” he stated. “This is a step in that direction.”

Despite these assurances, concerns remain. Faculty and students expressed fears in a letter sent along with the petition to President Tromp that the structural changes, particularly the integration into a broader “intercultural” framework, could dilute the Center’s mission and marginalize the communities it was built to serve. 

“People aren’t going to feel safe, they’re not going to feel seen, and they’re not going to feel like they’re protected, because that space isn’t naturally and intuitively meant for them,” Olsen said. “This is something real that’s going to affect real people.”

The petition remains open, and the consolidation has yet to take full effect. 

“We know from across the country that university LGBTQ centers are under attack… this will be a long conversation that not just I will be having with President Tromp, but that the whole community… will be having with the UVM administration,” Rohy said.

Staff at WAGE and Prism did not respond to requests for comment from The Cynic.