Various campus organizations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender students and their allies met with university administrators last Tuesday night, asking that the opening of the new LGBTA Student Resource Center be put on hold until additional resources become available.

The transition from the LGBTA Resource Room into the new LGBTA Student Resource Center is scheduled to be completed before the end of the semester, but the new center does not include additional features the LGBTA requested and deems necessary.

Because the students felt that they had no chance to give input during the development process, they drafted and sent a proposal about the center to Penn State President Graham Spanier two weeks ago. The proposal mentioned features additional to the ones outlined in the plans for the university's original center.

They asked that the center include a full-time director, assistant, staff adviser, part-time graduate student assistant and part-time counselor.

The university denied them the proposed additions, stating that funding was not available to complete their requests.

"The feeling from the students is that it doesn't matter. We were told what we wanted wasn't going to happen," said Lynn Thompson, co-director of Womyn's Concerns.

Terrell Jones, vice provost for Educational Equity and host of the meeting, stated the university is very interested in going forward with the project using the existing funding with the hopes that the center will develop over the next few years.

"The president said, 'I think we can do this if we use existing resources'," Jones said. Jones added, "I'm not so sure these things can't happen. You just need to get the right people in there, and they'll grow it."

The 'right people,' according to the students, are the people in charge of running the current LGBTA resource room. These students think a new staff would be detrimental to the whole program.

Because the transition from the existing resource room to the new center would require a department change, people with positions of leadership in the current room would most likely lose their jobs.

"We may be losing a very valuable person," said Tarah Ausburn, a member of Womyn's Concerns, speaking of the current director of the room.

Even without the requested additions and administration concerns, Jones believes that the center as planned by the university is a definite improvement over the existing room.

If LGBTA students decide not to accept the center, Jones said it would be a mistake because they would lose the space, the interest and the funding.

"I don't see how we cannot afford to do this," Jones said. "I just can't see how that (abandoning the idea of opening the center) is better for LGBTA students." He added, "If you kill the goose," referring to opening the new center, "it's not going to lay any more eggs."

The students don't agree.

"It's going to look pretty for the administration but not meet our needs," said Jennifer Storm (junior-rehabilitation services), social director for the Lambda Student Alliance. "If we move forward with the center as it's been proposed, it is a step back," Storm said. "Don't call it a 'student' center. We have no say in our center."

Others feel that the university is beyond compromising with student concerns.

"It's not a compromise when nobody makes a compromise with us," Thompson said.

LGBTA students are attempting to schedule a large meeting with as many interested students as possible to discuss and make a uniform decision. The fate of the center will be decided after the meeting.