While conversations about the construction of a resource center for gay students on campus continue, frozen funds and financial struggles have halted progress for the time being.

Nahder Houshmand, chair of the student relations committee, has considered short-term solutions to the absence of a resource center.

“This semester, funding has kind of put it on the backburner slightly, but I’m not fully satisfied with where we are,” Houshmand said. “We’re not willing to give up at this point.”

Houshmand said more economical alternatives include the possibility of addressing LGBT needs in an existing office.

“Instead of maybe going on this big, separate endeavor, maybe we can incorporate them into the offices that we already have,” Houshmand said.

As for next semester, Houshmand said that the administration is looking into reinstating the Safe Zone Project in the fall. This project would enable interested faculty members to display stickers in or near their offices that indicate an awareness and acceptance to the LGBT cause and lifestyle.

Houshmand supports the initiative as an inexpensive, temporary substitute that can be accomplished within a short period of time.

Last semester, Houshmand headed an effort along with Mark Olendzki, student government vice president for student affairs, to reach out to the LGBT community.

Aside from co-hosting an informational forum, they approached the Apportionment Board in the effort to allocate funds for a fact-finding trip to the University of Southern Illinois-Carbondale, which houses a physical center. Budget concerns stalled this attempt.

As part of Olendzki’s campaign promise, he told the student senate he intended to visit a series of schools, but this year’s constricted budget inhibited him from doing so.

Instead, he said his focus for the remainder of his term will revolve around working with the student relations committee to plan and research with the resources at his disposal.

“While a center is something that I passionately believe would benefit our student body and university as a whole, in our current budgetary and economic situation we all have to be realistic,” Olendzki said.

Erica Whelan can be reached at 581-7942 or elwhelan@eiu.edu